NIATx - Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) Network

The NIATx Files: A brief history of the Nominal Group Technique

Published: 04/02/2024

The Nominal Group Technique (NGT) is one of the essential tools that NIATx change teams use to implement successful change projects.

Three Ways to Sustain Change with NIATx

Published: 03/04/2024

By Mat Roosa, LCSW-R, NIATx Coach The NIATx model is designed to help teams identify and implement a process improvement. While adopting a change is a significant accomplishment, the true test lies in maintaining that change and its positive outcomes over the long term: sustaining the change. Sustainability refers to the ability to stick with the […]

NIATx in New Places: Research and Innovation in Professional Coaching with NIATx

Published: 04/11/2023

By: James H. Ford II, PhD, FACHE, LFHIMSS Dr. Jay Ford is an associate professor in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His teaching and research focus on the dissemination, implementation, and sustainment of organizational change in multiple healthcare environments, including acute care, behavioral health, and long-term care. He was also a […]

ATTC’s Pearls of Wisdom: The Legacy and Future of the NIATx Model and the Great Lakes ATTC

Published: 04/06/2023

By Todd Molfenter, PhD, director of Great Lakes ATTC, MHTTC, & PTTC How can I successfully make “organizational change?” This is the fundamental question that started the NIATx movement. Simply stated, NIATx is a set of tools and techniques used to make organizational change: whether it be improving the admissions process, implementing an evidence-based clinical […]

NIATx in New Places: Building Cultural Intelligence and Health Equity

Published: 03/14/2023

By: Alfredo Cerrato, Senior Cultural and Workforce Development Officer, Great Lakes ATTC/PTTC/MHTTC NIATx has been a vehicle for innovation since introducing process improvement tools and techniques to substance use disorder treatment organizations in 2003. The five NIATx principles combined with the essential NIATx tools have transformed approaches to treatment access and retention for countless organizations […]

NIATx in New Places

Published: 02/21/2023

By: Mat Roosa, LCSW-R NIATx launched in 2003 and has been supporting process improvement change efforts ever since. The NIATx in New Places blog series will share the experiences of NIATx practitioners old and new. We will learn how NIATx has been rebooted and repurposed in many new settings, and how it continues to have […]

Embracing Change: How to Infuse Technical Assistance with NIATx Process Improvement Principles

Published: 12/01/2022

By: Kristina Spannbauer, Communications Specialist for the Great Lakes ATTC, MHTTC, & PTTC One of the greatest aspects of NIATx process improvement is the adaptability of this model. Over the past several years, the Great Lakes ATTC, MHTTC, and PTTC have developed hybrid training series integrating NIATx principles with other in-demand technical assistance (TA) and […]

NIATx Model Featured in Newly Released Classroom WISE Training Discussion Guide

Published: 08/11/2022

By: Kristina Spannbauer, Great Lakes ATTC, MHTTC, and PTTC Communications Specialist The Great Lakes Mental Health Technology Transfer Center School-based Supplement (SB-MHTTC) recently published a companion discussion guide for the Classroom WISE training program. Classroom WISE is a free, self-paced online course for educators and school staff that focuses on increasing mental health literacy in […]

Change Project 911 In Review

Published: 01/19/2022

Thank you for coming along on this Change Project 911 journey with Mat Roosa, the guest blogger for the series. Below you will find a list of all the Change Project 911 NIATx series with a short blurb. Select the title to read the full content of each blog. Help! My Project is Dragging on […]

Change Project 911: Customers don’t notice improvements

Published: 10/18/2021

Mat Roosa, LCSW-RNIATx Coach How do we know if a change is an improvement? Change teams and change leaders ask this question frequently. It often refers to the measures and data they’re using to monitor change results. But there is another and perhaps more meaningful way to ask this question: How do our customers know […]

Change Project 911: Help! How do we deal with change project interruptions?

Published: 09/17/2021

Mat Roosa, LCSW-RNIATx Coach Maintaining forward momentum on top priorities Once your team has developed a change project and you have strong executive support, it might seem like things should be smooth sailing. But there are a number of ways that a strong project can be blown off course. Competing priorities Before the 1900s, the […]

Change Project 911: When Your Rapid-cycle PDSA is not Working

Published: 08/26/2021

Mat Roosa, LCSW-RNIATx Coach Rapid-Cycle Plan-Do-Study-ACT (PDSA) is a powerful tool for improvement that can enable a team or organization to achieve its short-term goals and move toward long-term success. But sometimes, PDSA change cycles do not yield the desired results. Here are a few questions to consider when your change project does not achieve […]

Change Project 911: Counting what Counts: Addressing the challenge of incomplete data collection

Published: 07/23/2021

Mat Roosa, LCSW-RNIATx Coach “Help! We don’t know if our change is an improvement!” At the foundation of all quality improvement work lies data. Imagine driving down a twisty road at night and having your headlights turned off for a portion of the journey. That’s what happens when we try to manage a […]

Change Project 911: The Incomplete Walk-through

Published: 05/24/2021

Mat Roosa, LCSW-RNIATx Coach Understand and involve the customer. This is the first and most important of the five NIATx principles. Much of our NIATx work involves working to understand the customer/client/patient experience—because the customer experience is the critical factor in all service delivery. Strategies to understand and involve the customer can include client interviews, […]

Change Project 911: What to Do When the Idea Well Has Run Dry

Published: 04/08/2021

Mat Roosa, LCSW-RNIATx Coach We want to improve, and we have made some changes, but they have not worked. We don’t know what else to do. Generating change ideas requires time and energy. Teams lose momentum when initial change efforts don’t succeed, and then struggle to develop option B (or C) to continue their improvement […]

Change Project 911: Help! Our change project is unmanageable!

Published: 03/15/2021

Mat Roosa, LCSW-RNIATx Coach Basket or cart? It’s the first decision we usually make when we enter a large grocery store. When I am just buying a few items, I usually pick up a basket so that I can move more easily through the store. Often I find myself with a gallon of milk in […]

Change Project 911: Help! My Change Team has lost its energy!

Published: 02/10/2021

Mat Roosa, LCSW-RNIATx Coach Sometimes a change team can feel like a phone with only 2 percent battery life left. Some teams start with a full charge that drains through time. Other teams get started with a lower level of energy and go downhill from there. The challenge of COVID-19 and other competing priorities and […]

Change Project 911: Help! My Project Is Dragging on Too Long

Published: 12/30/2020

Mat Roosa, LCSW-RNIATx Coach The Problem Change projects are not meant to be open-ended. They’re meant to move quickly and efficiently to extract the maximum benefits. Dave Gustafson, who developed the NIATx model, recommends limiting change projects to no more than a few weeks. Some change projects can be completed successfully in as little as […]

How to Reduce No-shows to Virtual Appointments

Published: 06/24/2020

Todd Molfenter, Ph.D. Director, Great Lakes ATTC, MHTTC, and PTTC Is this a familiar scenario for your organization? Day 1: Stay-at-home order: Your agency enacts social distancing guidelines. Day 3: Your agency has switched in-person counseling to telephonic or video-based counseling. Day 12: Virtual services, particularly telephone, have increased engagement rates! Day 30: The honeymoon […]

Learning from Crisis: PDSA in Times of Challenge

Published: 04/23/2020

Mat Roosa, LCSW-R NIATx Coach Crisis requires that we triage the most urgent matters, and take rapid action to address them. Crisis demands that we limit our analysis to the critical data points. Crisis demands that we try new and untested strategies, and rapidly respond to the results of our efforts. Crisis is dangerous, chaotic, […]

NIATx Tools: What I Learned From My First Walk-through Exercise

Published: 03/02/2020

Julia Parnell Alexander, Ph.D. Co-Director, Great Lakes PTTC State Project Manager, Indiana, for the Great Lakes ATTC, MHTTC, and PTTC My first NIATx walk-through exercise happened when I was a staff member at a recovery community organization (RCO) in Minnesota. Through this experience, I quickly learned the difference between theory and practice. I thought I […]

NIATx: Promising Practices to Increase Engagement in Treatment

Published: 01/31/2020

Maureen Fitzgerald Great Lakes ATTC/NIATx NIATx Principle 1, "Understand and Involve the Customer," comes alive when a change team conducts a walk-through of their agency or one of its processes. For many change teams, the first walk-through focuses on the customer's first contact with the agency: the intake and admission processes. A walk-through of first […]

2020 Vision: What Will You Improve in the New Year?

Published: 01/06/2020

Mat Roosa, LCSW-R NIATx Coach With the start of a new year, many organizations resolve to tackle long-standing issues, such as high no-show rates. In this post, NIATx coach Mat Roosa shares his vision for reducing no-shows: Offer walk-in hours. Walk-ins “The best way to get rid of no-shows for appointments is to get rid […]

Make it Quick! NIATx Principle #5: Use Rapid-Cycle Testing

Published: 12/05/2019

Maureen Fitzgerald Editor, NIATx and Great Lakes ATTC The fifth principle of the NIATx model is rapid-cycle testing, structured around what’s known as the PDSA (Plan-Do-Study-Act) Cycle. In rapid-cycle testing, the executive sponsor, change leader, or team comes up with ideas for changes to test and then tests each of those changes in quick succession […]

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Tag: NIATx