Here’s how it works:

The what: We’re looking for ideas to improve how Geisinger cares for our patients, our members, our family and our community.

The why: Many problems in healthcare are due to a lack of information, support for good decision-making or barriers to execution. 

So, how do we fix it?

The how: By seeking solutions (called "nudges") that affect human behavior for the better and have minimal costs or save costs in healthcare. A nudge is a small change in the choice architecture — the way in which choices are presented to people when making decisions — that improves the outcome for at least one stakeholder, while not worsening outcomes for other stakeholders. 

The guidelines: If there’s a problem you think can be solved, we’d love to hear your nudge solution. Problems should meet the following criteria:

• Be a frequent, widespread occurrence or a less frequent, but costly issue
• Be directly linked to poor health outcomes and/or cost
• Have a clear, measurable result
• Have a solution that’s tied to changes in human behavior
• Be able to be compared with the current approach to determine whether the nudge was successful
  
  

More about nudges

Here are some examples to give you an idea of how nudges can help solve problems in healthcare:

• Organ donation – Setting a default choice so that users actively need to "opt out" of donating (versus "opting in") is linked with much higher rates of organ donation.
• Automatic Rx renewals – Increasing automatic prescription renewals, rather than relying on patients to manually renew their own prescriptions, improves patient adherence to medications.
• Flu vaccine alerts – Implementing a call to action alert that requires providers to “accept” or “cancel” a vaccine order for eligible patients can achieve higher vaccination rates.
  
  

Nudge mnemonics: Many nudges are EAST:

• Easy — reduce effort, make the best option the default
• Attractive — capture attention, personalize, surprise, use emotional associations
• Social — utilize norms (what others are doing) & commitments
• Timely — implemented at the appropriate moment
  
  

Check back for the next open call for nudges!