Dr. Jay Ford joins Center for Health Systems Research and Analysis

Jay Ford, an Assistant Scientist at the UW-Madison, recently changed his academic appointment from the Center for Health Enhancement Systems Studies (CHESS) to the Center for Health Systems Research and Analysis (CHSRA). Dr. Ford’s research applies health systems engineering principals and techniques to improve health care delivery systems across the healthcare continuum.

While at CHESS, he was a member of the team that developed and tested the NIATx model in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded and CSAT-funded Paths to Recovery and STAR projects. Over the past 10 years, Jay led the research and data analysis for NIATx 200 and STAR-SI projects that focused on spreading organizational change in addiction treatment organizations and systems. He has also conducted research within the Veterans Administration seeking to understand how healthcare systems sustain organizational change. Other projects have explored the impact of the implementation and sustainment of organization change on employee commitment to change and access to health care services for individuals with chronic diseases. Jay still has several active behavioral health research projects. These include:

• Evaluating the use of the Advancing Recovery model to improve access to medication assisted treatment
• Understanding how individual teaching and learning styles influence organizational change.
• Exploring the long term sustainability of change post participation in the NIATx200 initiative
• Testing an implementation and sustainment facilitation model to enhance the use of motivational interviewing and brief intervention in HIV treatment providers
• Evaluating how physicians use quality improvement and social media to support their maintenance of certification efforts. in the field of behavioral health

In his new role at CHSRA, Dr. Ford will continue his work in behavioral health and will expand his research in the area of quality improvement by working on various projects related to areas of long term care. These projects focus on:

• Improving access to evidence based prevention programs (Living Well and Stepping On) in county based Aging and Disability Resource Centers;
• Understanding and improving falls prevention in Assisted Living Communities; and
• Testing the effectiveness of the Optimizing Antibiotic Stewardship In Skilled Nursing Facilities (OASIS) intervention to reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescribing.

All the staff of the Center for Health Enhancement Systems Studies and NIATx thank Jay for his significant contributions to multiple research projects and wish him the best in his newest endeavor.