Abstract for: No time for that: Engaging busy stakeholders through Web-based SD model-building, -exercising, and -extending

This Work-In-Progress topic concerns the application of System Dynamics (SD) models to enhance Performance Improvement Project (PIP) projects in the PA Health Choices Behavioral Health (HCBH) Medicaid Program. PIPs are typically 3-year projects aimed at improving the performance of Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) in key health care quality areas affecting a statewide Medicaid population. In 2020, the PA HCBH Program will be rolling out a new 3-year PIP focusing on improving access and quality of care related to substance use disorders (SUD). IPRO will be offering to develop SD models to serve as learning tools for MCOs as they develop and implement their PIPs. Specifically, IPRO will draw on existing research on SUD and related care systems, particularly in PA, to build a rudimentary “base” SD model in a shared server setting where the MCOs will then have an opportunity to exercise and then extend the model to apply to their PIP (cf. Richmond, 2013). A central theme of this Work-In-Progress will center on the challenges and opportunities for communicating a model that best facilitates learning among stakeholders who otherwise feel they have very little time or resources to devote to “modeling.”