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Guyana, South America, Observes Healthcare Quality Week

“We hope we will have a strong commitment to change, apply teamwork and evidence-based practice [so that] at least 75% of processes and procedures will be improved for safety, and there will be an establishment of a new environment for care. The facility with the best patient safety culture will be recognized--thus we should have highly reliable facilities. We want healthcare in Guyana, at a minimum, to be safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient and equitable … we want to do everything to keep our patients and ourselves safe.” The country’s Minister of Health promised more regulation of the healthcare system.

David Loose Speaks at Healthcare Forum in Dubai

Healthcare leaders from the Middle East and Southeast Asia met in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, October 13–14 for the Third Annual Healthcare Expansion Congress. Healthcare Quality Certification Board (HQCB) chair David Loose was invited to attend and present to regional chief executive officers, quality professionals, and ministers of health at the forum. Loose’s two presentations--“Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality: The Mark of Excellence in Healthcare Quality” and “Transparency in Healthcare: Does It Improve Quality and Patient Safety?”--were extremely well-received and generated a great deal of discussion. Afterward, Loose was interviewed by a Dubai television station. “The Middle East is experiencing a huge growth in high-tech, state-of-the-art healthcare facilities being built to serve the growing population in this part of the world,” Loose told NAHQ E-News.

State News

On November 21, the Alaska Healthcare Quality Professionals (AkHQP) will host “Building Effective Systems to Manage Healthcare Quality,” presented by Darlene Bainbridge of the Providence Alaska Medical Center. Beginning November 18 , AkHQP will hold a CPHQ study group via videoconference for Alaskan residents. The study session will be available for 10 weeks. For more information, contact Rosemary M. Craig, president, at rmc@sphosp.com or by calling 907/235-0389.

The Arizona Association for Healthcare Quality (AzAHQ) will hold its annual conference, “Cost and Quality: Success with Medicare and Ways to Streamline Process,” on November 14 at the Radisson Hotel, Phoenix Airport North, Phoenix, AZ. The conference will focus on Medicare’s influence on cost and quality, as well as on improving process changes for Medicare reimbursement. Anne-Claire France, PhD CPHQ, consultant of Healthcare Performance Improvement, Norfolk, VA, and Lean Six Sigma expert, will be the conference keynote speaker. As former director of the Center for Healthcare Improvement at Memorial Hermann Healthcare System, Houston, TX, France brought applied health services research to the front lines of patient care, resulting in significant improvement in clinical and nonclinical operations and cost savings. For more information on the conference, visit www.azahq.org.



A Healthcare Quality Overview and Certification workshop, offered by the California Association for Healthcare Quality and Janet A. Brown, BSN BA RN CPHQ FNAHQ, healthcare quality consultant and educator, is scheduled three times in 2009: January 29–30, July 23–24, and October 15–16. The workshops will be held at the Ontario Airport Marriott Hotel in Ontario, CA, adjacent to the Ontario International Airport. The workshop provides 14 CPHQ CE hours. More information is available at www.cahq.org or by calling Helen Gatti, association manager, at 800/230-3163.


The Illinois Association for Healthcare Quality (IAHQ) has a new Web site at www.iahq.net. You are invited to visit and share your feedback. The site is not yet complete, but it has come a long way, thanks to the hard work of IAHQ’s board members, especially Carol Myer (treasurer) and Mary Lewis (membership). IAHQ continues to search for chairs for technology and publications. A CPHQ review course is being planned for early spring 2009.

The Indiana Association for Healthcare Quality (InAHQ) and Ohio Association for Healthcare Quality held a joint 1-day seminar on leadership at St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis, IN, on October 17, 2008. InAHQ had received an education grant from NAHQ to sponsor the leadership conference. Sessions included “The Journey from Staff Nurse to Chief Executive Officer,” “Leaders vs. Managers,” “Growing Leaders,” and “Communication Styles.” According to Bonnie Tuttle, BSN RN CPHQ, immediate past president of InAHQ, evaluations from the well-attended seminar were “overwhelmingly positive,” and “demand for more affordable 1-day seminars was clearly voiced by the attendees.”

Second Curve Healthcare
Cynthia Bridgham, BSN RN, and Jennifer Charrette, MPH CPHQ


On October 20, 2008, Martin D. Merry, MD, presented “Patient Safety, Organizational Culture, and the Future of Healthcare Quality: A Shift in Thinking” at a 1-day program sponsored by the Maine Association for Healthcare Quality in Portland, ME. Merry is the program chair for the American Society for Quality’s Quality Institute for Healthcare and an adjunct associate clinical professor of health management and policy for the University of New Hampshire, Durham. He is also a partner in Dynamic Health Systems in Sanbornton, NH.

    Merry’s discussion centered on the theme that today’s complex healthcare environment is notably different from the environment that he and others in the audience were trained in 20–30 years ago. The high degree of complexity that is woven into the science and treatment of illness has brought with it a higher level of risk as well as benefit to our patients.
    Merry spoke about the theory of second-curve healthcare that will need to be managed with new thinking, creativity, and new technology. This theory was first described by Ian Morrison in his 1996 book, The Second Curve. In contrast to first-curve healthcare, in which health systems were developed around the needs of physicians, the second curve is patient- and community-centered, while also supporting physicians in successful diagnosis and treatment.
    Merry insisted that current first-curve healthcare systems cannot be managed safely because of a combination of remarkable complexity and an inadequately designed clinical management infrastructure. A global need to create second-curve healthcare systems has therefore become urgent. Merry believes that the creation of an information-based clinical infrastructure to support the needs of bedside caregivers and their patients should be a top priority. He also described the importance of team-based, consensus decision processes that are fundamental to second-curve systems and the positive impacts on patient and caregiver satisfaction, patient morbidity and mortality, and medical costs that have been seen by early second-curve adopters.
    Using clinical microsystems approaches and management sciences such as Lean and Six Sigma, quality professionals will be integral in developing second-curve healthcare systems.
    Despite the current U.S. healthcare quality crisis, Merry is optimistic because he is seeing pockets of change and positive results. These can instruct others who want to proactively address this crisis of complexity.



The Maryland Association for Healthcare Quality (MAHQ) is sponsoring a CPHQ review course at Johns Hopkins Home Care Group, Baltimore, MD, November 21–22. The course facilitator will be Christy L. Beaudin, vice-president and chief quality officer at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, in Los Angeles, CA. Visit www.MdAHQ.org to obtain more information or to register online.




The Minnesota Healthcare Quality Professionals (MHQP) will hold its annual meeting and educational session on November 18 at Stratis Health in Bloomington, MN, 4:30–6:30 pm. Stratis Health is the state’s Medicare quality improvement organization (QIO).

    The meeting, “Looking into the Healthcare Quality Professionals’ Crystal Ball: National and State Policy Implications for Healthcare Quality,” will feature guest speaker Jennifer Lundblad, PhD MBA, president and chief executive officer of Stratis Health. Discussions will center on recent legislation, national policy changes, and election results and their implications for healthcare quality professionals. For more information, contact MHQP President Jennie Rodlund at jennie.rodlund@HFAnet.org.



The Texas Association for Healthcare Quality (TAHQ) held its annual fall conference October 23–24 at the Menger Hotel in San Antonio, TX, during National Healthcare Quality Week. “We had lots of fun and celebrated the week in many ways,” said TAHQ President Sandra Jones. “We held concurrent sessions for beginners, intermediate, and advanced healthcare quality professionals and a poster contest and raffle to benefit the Healthcare Quality Foundation and TAHQ scholarship funds.”