Project ECHO Uses Collaborative Approach to Improving Quality and Safety

​Project ECHO is an "all teach, all learn community" that brings providers together to collaboratively treat patients and leverage scarce resources, said Cory Sevin, RN, senior director, Institute of Healthcare Improvement (IHI), speaking on December 13, 2017, at the IHI National Forum in Orlando, Florida. Project ECHO's methods include using technology (e.g., videoconferencing) to connect providers, sharing best practices among organizations, applying case-based learning, and evaluating and monitoring outcomes using web-based systems. An IHI–Project ECHO collaborative seeks to determine whether the Project ECHO model can support quality-improvement education and streamline complex systems. Sevin and Elizabeth Clewett, PhD, MBA, program specialist, Project ECHO, described a test case on improving clinical case flow in 16 federally qualified health centers (FQHCs). Over a 12-month period, team members from each of the 16 centers participated in weekly two-hour teleECHO clinics using videoconferencing software.