In 2015, Dr. Justin Coffey published “Perfect Depression Care Spread: The Traction of Zero Suicides” in the Journal of Clinical Outcomes Management. In the article, he chronicled the diffusion of the Henry Ford Health System Perfect Depression Care initiative that was founded and led by his father Dr. Ed Coffey. He went on to describe how he led spread of the Zero Suicide approach into both general hospital and primary care settings.
Dr. Coffey aimed to achieve breakthrough improvement in quality and safety by completely redesigning the delivery of depression care using the 6 aims and 10 new rules set forth in the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) report Crossing the Quality Chasm. He and the Henry Ford Health System team developed a clinical protocol, enhanced their training and carefully measured their progress.
In 2012, when medical leadership from Magellan Health approached Dr. Coffey to learn more, he generously shared these easily replicable tools and encouraged adaptation and adoption. These principles of innovation have been core components of the viral spread across multiple countries.