Training

IHI Breakthrough Series College

Breakthrough Series College: March 2025

Format:

In-Person & Online

Begins:

Mar 05, 2025

Duration:

6 Weeks

Fee:

$4,995

Groups of 3 or more:

$4,246

Registration Group Registration

Don't miss out! Join our exclusive Informational Call with faculty on Wednesday, January 8, 2025, at 1 PM ET. Gain valuable insights and register now to secure your spot.

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*Prices are listed in USD

What Is the Breakthrough Series College?

The Breakthrough Series College is a powerful, hands-on, proven professional development program designed to teach you how to run effective BTS Collaboratives across your organization to improve outcomes for your patients, students, or clients. Challenges abound in healthcare, in education, and in social services – insufficient staffing, burnout, waste, and complex systems with unreliable processes. Fortunately, solutions also abound but they are often not being used reliably enough at the frontlines of patient care, in classrooms, and in our communities.

Join our exclusive Informational Call with faculty on Wednesday, January 8, 2025, at 1 PM ET. Gain valuable insights and register now to secure your spot.

Learning Goals

Whether you are already planning a specific BTS Collaborative or are eager to learn how to identify when the right time is to leverage the methodology, the expert BTS College faculty will teach you the step-by-step process of launching, running, and closing a BTS.

Even if a traditional BTS Collaborative is not immediately in your future, participants find that the building blocks of the College can be very helpful in other improvement projects as well.

The College moves chronologically through the BTS process:

Selecting an effective and timely topic
Running a productive expert meeting
Selecting impactful faculty and staff
Creating the technical content needed (charter, driver diagram, change package, and measurement strategy)
Recruiting the right teams and engaging them in prework
Using and teaching the Model for Improvement as the execution model
Facilitating dynamic Learning Sessions
Maintaining momentum in the Action Periods
Assessing progress in the Collaborative and course-correcting as needed
Guiding, closing, and evaluating the Collaborative

Faculty

Kelly McCutcheon Adams, MSW, LICSW, is a Senior Director at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and has been with IHI since 2004. She is the Director (and co-faculty) of the IHI Breakthrough Series College and the Director of the IHI Chief Quality Officer Professional Development Program. Ms. McCutcheon Adams has led and coached many BTS Collaboratives and has taught in the United States, Denmark, UK, and Australia. She is a medical social worker with experience in hospice, nursing homes, sub-acute rehabilitation, emergency department, and ICU settings. Ms. McCutcheon Adams served as faculty for the Organ Donation Collaborative of the US Department of Health and Human Services and for the Gift of Life Institute.

Sue Butts-Dion is a quality improvement consultant with over 20 years of management consulting experience in health care. She successfully supports clients, including hospital systems and physician practices, in planning and implementing improvement objectives. Ms. Butts-Dion's practice areas include improvement planning, training, and group facilitation.

Program Team

Lauren Cameron, Program Manager, IHI

Disclaimer: Consistent with the IHI’s policy, faculty for this program are expected to disclose at the beginning of their presentation(s) any economic or other personal interests that create, or may be perceived as creating, a conflict related to the material discussed. The intent of this disclosure is not to prevent a speaker with a significant financial or other relationship from making a presentation but rather to provide listeners with information on which they can make their own judgments.

Unless otherwise noted below, each presenter provided full disclosure information, does not intend to discuss an unapproved/investigative use of a commercial product/device, and has no significant financial relationship(s) to disclose. If unapproved uses of products are discussed, presenters are expected to disclose this to participants.

Topics of Focus

Of note, participants in past Breakthrough Series College programs have stressed the need for organizations to send two or more people to the College when possible, to optimize learning about the Collaborative structure and roles. Participants will select either a Director or Improvement Advisor breakout track when not attending general plenary sessions.

Over the course of the Breakthrough Series College, participants will:

Become prepared for either a Director or Improvement Advisor role within a BTS Collaborative
Learn how to become a change leader within your organization
Connect with peers who are also preparing to run BTS Collaboratives
Have 1:1 coaching opportunities with faculty

Attendee Take-Aways

Of note, participants in past Breakthrough Series College programs have stressed the need for organizations to send two or more people to the College, to optimize learning about the Collaborative structure and roles. Participants will select either a Director or Improvement Advisor track when not attending general plenary sessions. Over the course of the Breakthrough Series College, participants will:

Become prepared for either a Director or Improvement Advisor role at your organization within a BTS Collaborative
Learn how to become a change leader within your organization
Connect with peers who are also preparing to run BTS Collaboratives
Have 1:1 coaching opportunity with faculty

Learn More

Agenda

This program consists of 4 live online sessions, 1 two-day in-person session, and self-paced activities to be completed outside of the live sessions. Self-paced activities between sessions are required and should take no longer than five hours to complete in total across the College.

Breakthrough Series Agenda

Continuing Education

In support of improving patient care, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the health care team.

CE credits for this offering are still being finalized and will be updated shortly.

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement designates this blended learning activity for a maximum of 28 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. This activity may also be applicable for other professions that accept AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™.

A growing list of countries accept ACCME-accredited education.

As a result of this program, attendees will be able to:

Operate a successful Collaborative improvement project
Increase their ability to teach and use the Model for Improvement, an improvement strategy used in the Breakthrough Series

CE Instructions

In order to be eligible for a continuing education certificate, attendees must complete the online evaluation within 30 days of the continuing education activity. After this period, you will be unable to receive a certificate.

Continuing education credits will not be awarded for non-educational activities, including (but not limited to) meals, breaks, and receptions.

Planning Committee

Kelly McCutcheon Adams, LICSW, Senior Project Director, IHI

Sue Butts-Dion, Improvement Advisor, IHI

Donald Goldmann, MD, Chief Medical and Scientific Officer, IHI

Lauren Cameron, Program Manager, IHI

Patricia McGaffigan, RN, MS, CPPS, Vice President, IHI

Disclosure: None of the planners, presenters, or staff for this educational activity have relevant financial relationship(s) to disclose with ineligible companies whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.

Session Materials

If you are registered for this program and would like to access the available materials, please follow these steps:

Click “My IHI” at the top of this page and log in.
Once you’re logged in, click on “My Participation" tab and then the button that says "My Materials".
Click on the "My Materials" button to access handouts and other documents that will be used in this program.

Fees

IHI may, at its discretion, cancel, postpone, or otherwise modify in-person programs at any time, with or without notice. If IHI does so and as a result, a registrant is unable to participate in the program, IHI will refund the registration fee. The registrant, however, will remain responsible for other costs (such as travel and lodging) the registrant incurs in connection with the program, and IHI will not refund the registrant, nor otherwise be responsible for, such costs. Registrants should proceed accordingly and consider travel/lodging cancellation policies — as well as purchasing travel insurance — when incurring such costs. IHI asks registrants to take into consideration the currently evolving situation and advisories related to COVID-19 before incurring travel, lodging, and other costs related to this event.

Regular Rate: $4,995 USD per person

Group Rate: $4,246 USD per person (groups of three or more save 15%)

PLEASE NOTE: Rates do not vary by location. We encourage (but do not require) organizations to send at least two people to this program because there are two tracks within the program: one dedicated to training future Improvement Advisors and one for training future Directors. Participants have the option to select their track, and we've heard from past attendees that having two representatives at this program has helped immensely upon return to their home organization.

Scholarships

IHI is pleased to offer a limited number of free and 25% scholarships to assist with program registration costs for those working in:

Independent, United States Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) that are not affiliated with a hospital or health system
Critical Access Hospitals
Independent practices with fewer than 20 physicians
Hospitals with fewer than 50 beds
Members of America's Essential Hospitals
501(c)(3) organization with a defined operating budget of less than $5 million, serving community-based populations
Ministries of Health
Faith-based health institutions
Skilled Nursing Facilities

All Scholarships are reviewed on an individual basis. If multiple individuals from the same organization wish to apply for a scholarship, everyone must submit an application. Group discounts are also available, see information above.

To ensure equal distribution of funds, all scholarships applications are reviewed using the same scoring criteria. All awarded amounts are final.

To apply for a scholarship, please complete the online Scholarship Application by January 18, 2025. IHI will not consider applications submitted after this date. IHI will notify all applicants of their scholarship status by February 7, 2025.

GSA Pricing For US Government

IHI offers GSA pricing for US government employees to enroll in this educational program. For more information and pricing, see IHI's GSA schedule.

Cancellations, Refunds, Substitutions

Registration Fee of $2,950 or more

Payments: Full payment is due 60 days before the start of the program. If payment in full is not received within 60 days prior to the program start date, IHI will notify you and cancel your registration.
- Credit card payments: Enter your credit card information online during the registration process, or call the IHI Customer Experience Department to process payment over the phone.
- Check payments: Please mail a copy of the invoice with your check made payable to IHI.
Cancelations: For cancelations made within 45 days before the start of a program: Registration fees are fully refundable if a written request is received by info@ihi.org on or before 45 days before the start of the program.
Refunds: IHI will issue all refunds in the original payment type (credit card or check) within 30 days. Registrations received after 45 days or less before the start of the program are not refundable.
Substitutions: One attendee may be substituted for another at any time by emailing info@ihi.org.

Our Guarantee to You

If for any reason you are not completely satisfied that your attendance in an IHI educational program is a valuable experience, IHI will gladly refund your registration fee per the policies noted above. Please note that due to unforeseeable circumstances, last-minute changes in program titles, speakers, or presentations may be unavoidable.

Need Help?

info@ihi.org

Breadcrumb

IHI Breakthrough Series College

Breakthrough Series College: March 2025

What Is the Breakthrough Series College?

Agenda

Continuing Education

CE Instructions

Planning Committee

Session Materials

Fees

​​Scholarships

GSA Pricing For US Government

Cancellations, Refunds, Substitutions

Our Guarantee to You

Need Help?

Related Training

Need Help?

Scholarships