Clinical Practice Guidelines Work Group Facilitator

CLINICAL PRACTICE GUIDELINES: Used in health care to improve patient care as a potential solution to reduce inappropriate variations in care. Should be evidence based, incorporate patient input, as well as explicit criteria to ensure internal validity. May be viewed as an educational tool to provide information in shared decision making. The use of guidelines must always be in the context of a health care provider's clinical judgment in the care of a particular patient.

CURRENT GUIDELINES DEVELOPED: Chronic Disease in Primary Care | Mental Health | Military Related | Pain | Rehabilitation | Women's Health Implementation of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines is one strategy embraced to improve care by reducing variation in practice and systematizing "best practices". Guidelines address patient cohorts, serve to reduce errors, and provide consistent quality of care and utilization of resources throughout and between health care systems. Guidelines are also cornerstones for accountability and facilitate learning and the conduct of research. IMPLEMENTATION PRODUCTS ARE ACCOMPLISHED VIA TOOLKITS: The requirement is to facilitate the development of Clinical Practice Guideline Toolkits for the support and implementation of the CPGs recommendations for care and service on the management of various selected health conditions used within the Dept. of Veteran Affairs (VA) and Dept. of Defense (DoD).Approx. five VA/DOD CPGs are developed and published each year. Each VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG) requires one Toolkit which contains approximately five tools which results in approximately 25 tools produced per each contractual year. Facilitation of meetings is required to determine and develop the content of the Toolkits. The Toolkit Development Conferences are follow-on requirements to the development of the VA/DoD CPGs. The requirement is for a subject matter expert to facilitate and support requirements to reach working group consensus in determining the appropriate data for use in the development of each CPG Toolkit. Toolkits include affliction-specific tools to disseminate information to medical provider staff as well as educational products for patients and families of the patients. The CPG Work Group Facilitator shall work with and help groups, such as business teams, advisory boards, emergency action task forces, working groups, strategy planning teams, and community organizations with representatives who may have differences in perspectives, cultures, backgrounds, and shaped viewpoints to solve problems and improve operations through a structured approach to strategic solutions. The CPG Work Group Facilitator serves as the process manager for getting past obstacles, so the group can communicate effectively. Running a successful meeting will help clients and stakeholders operate efficiently, provide experience for all members, and drive towards successful outcomes from group meetings and/or project/taskforce initiatives. Coordination/Logistics Processes support creation and/or revision of Standard Operating Procedures (SOP's) and manage/support all aspects of meeting scheduling (location, venue and time) in accordance with established guidelines, standards, and principles. Topic/Agenda Acceptance work with groups to clarify meeting content, objectives and to establish ground rules that govern behavior. Review information from previous meetings and develop agenda/desired outcomes. Follow up on action items. Group Meeting Agendas develop agendas (adequately estimated for time frames) that will achieve stated goals and objectives. Client Conference/Program Participation select appropriate methods and tools that will enable participants to achieve results. Ongoing Course Adjustments consultative facilitation while working in close partnership with clients, meeting participants, and stakeholders throughout the program period; making the best possible use time and resources; correctly observing interests and developments, and working to enhance the process and achieve desired results. Dynamic Process Interactions Recognize that group meetings and/or project/taskforce initiatives are dynamic processes and that new insights and ideas can emerge that could significantly shift original intentions. Leadership Coaching/Support Initiatives work to ensure successful implementation of primary objectives through the facilitation of cross-functional meetings and internal Dept. level meetings. Follow-Up Deliverables work to improve the contributions from meeting participants; coordinate meeting schedules; provide assistance with creation of agendas; facilitate meetings; distribute meeting minutes, and maintain task and issues logs. Post-Event Hot Wash / After-Action Analysis / After Action Reports after the session is over, a complete report describing everything that went on in group meetings and/or project/taskforce initiatives shall be prepared. All action items agreed to by the participants are documented as part of this report. Public Involvement And Communications foster collaboration and communication through open, ongoing and effective maintenance of knowledge repositories to include correspondence, presentations, meeting summaries, work products, and responses to information requests by ensuring distribution of requested information. Document Retention And Knowledge Repositories live capture of meeting discussion/decisions in Microsoft word or excel is also expected. Maintain a library per established guidelines as a repository of related information co-located with the clients, program leadership, sub-group chairs, meeting participants, and other stakeholders as the official record required (i.e. Per Federal Advisory Committee Act - FACA) for an information repository. Program/Recommendations Implementation help participants reach decisions and accomplish goals. Help facilitate group meetings and/or project/taskforce initiatives, gain consensus, and manage the execution of action items, recommendations, and resolutions through counsel and support to clients, program leadership, sub-group chairs, meeting participants, and other stakeholders.

Qualifications: SPECIAL QUALIFICATIONS/CERTIFICATIONS:The Clinical Practice Guideline Facilitator must possess a current knowledge of management principles, preventative medical care, patient and provider education and treatment protocols, and an in-depth knowledge of VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs) as conducted for each of the Health Executive Committee (HEC) directed diagnoses/injuries. Further, The ProSidian Team Member must possess expertise to effectively facilitate meetings and negotiations between high-level DoD and VA medical military officers resulting in a consensus of the VA/DOD CPG toolkit items.