Advocate Health designs new care models to produce measurable outcomes and to scale across its footprint, according to Molly McColl, vice president of virtual health and clinical transformation. On a recent episode of the healthsystemCIO Show, she described the system’s Care Model Engineering process. It builds reusable standards, measures impact and helps teams move beyond individual pilots. For CIOs, it also reshapes the conversation about new tools, since requests are first evaluated against technology the system already has.

Care Model Engineering grew out of the system’s size. Advocate formed in 2022 when Advocate Aurora Health and Atrium Health combined. McColl described it as the third-largest nonprofit integrated health system in the U.S. As the organization grew, speed became a priority, she said. Advocate needed the infrastructure to take a promising care model from one part of the system and scale it across the footprint. The process brings strategy, operations, technology and human resources teams to the same table. Each effort starts with a problem the organization is trying to solve. Examples include an access constraint, a workforce capacity gap, avoidable transfers or patients who struggle to navigate the system.

Measurement runs through the process. Teams define what they expect a new care model to change and how they will assess its impact. Tying outcomes to the work lets leaders prioritize programs and see whether they deliver as intended, McColl said. “It comes down to ensuring we have measurable metrics around what we’re trying to move,” she said.

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