The Family Medicine Learning and Experience (FLEX) Lab: A Collaborative Approach to Advancing Clinical Care and Operations.

Abstract

The population in need of primary care is rapidly growing and increasingly complex with respect to chronic disease burden. We must develop alternative and more efficient approaches to managing patients if we are to increase access to care without sacrificing continuity; however, there is little guidance for innovation strategies at the practice level. The Mayo Clinic Department of Family Medicine engaged in a 2-year multistage planning process to develop plans for the Family Medicine Learning and Experience (FLEX) Lab to identify opportunities for innovation to improve daily practice. The purpose of the FLEX Lab is to drive continuous advancements within the context of our health system with the goal of delivering high-quality care to a greater number of patients while working within the constraints of limited staffing. Key lessons from the planning stage led to the development of a contextualized, incremental, and continuous approach to design and innovation. In its first phase, the FLEX Lab implemented a set of interventions that were novel to the unit itself, including nurse-led hypertension management, task-shifting rooming responsibilities, incorporating telehealth visits into routine clinician schedules, and ambient documentation to replace clinician-generated visit notes. We present a description of the overall FLEX Lab approach including early-stage findings and future work. The FLEX Lab is an adaptable and generalizable example of how health systems can strategically implement practice improvements informed by real-time input from clinicians and staff to support continuous and phased evolution.