Washington may have passed a historic and monumental bill to transform the nation’s health care system, but the P² Collaborative of Western New York has already been working to make changes here.

Many of the components of the health reform bill passed in Washington mirror the work already under way to reduce health care costs and improve efficiency in our system. With support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Community Health Foundation of Western and Central New York and The John R. Oishei Foundation, we have been able to make real progress right here in Western New York.

The real work of reform is being done here at the local level where care is delivered, and we’re already grappling with some of the most vexing issues in health care—and making progress. So, what exactly are we doing to improve our health care system? Here are a few examples:

• Along with 16 other communities across the country, the P² Collaborative has joined forces with local doctors, nurses, hospitals, employers, insurance plans and local residents to help people in Western New York get better care. To do so, we’re participating in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Aligning Forces for Quality effort, which is aimed at providing successful models for national reform.

• We are informing our community about what health care quality means and stressing that people have a right to expect high quality. The P² Collaborative is working with WNED-TV on a multiyear outreach campaign called “My Health Counts.” To date, three half-hour programs have been developed about the partnership between physicians and patients, patient self-management and healthy lifestyles, and the meaning of high-quality care. The effort is supported by a Web site, www.thinkbright.org/myhealthcounts

• We are working with doctors, nurses and other providers to improve the care that they deliver. Providers want to deliver quality care, but many don’t have access to tools and resources to assess the care they’re providing, illustrate their patients’ care experiences and implement internal quality improvement programs.

The Erie County Medical Center and Medina Memorial Health Care System have received funding to take part in the Transforming Care at the Bedside program that empowers nurses and other front-line staff to redesign work processes to achieve better outcomes in an effort to improve the quality of patient care and nursing staff retention.

The discussions around health care reform will continue, and pieces of the federal legislation will take a few years to implement, but the P² Collaborative is already working with key players in our community to foster real change.

Kevin Donovan is chairman of the P² Collaborative’s board of directors and is president and chief executive officer of Northeast District Energy Corp. Shelley Hirshberg is executive director of the P² Collaborative.

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