National Association for Healthcare Quality (NAHQ)

Contents

Message from the Board

Quality Collaborative

2009 Call for Abstracts

Now is your last chance to submit an abstract proposal for NAHQ's 2009 Annual Educational Conference, "NAHQ: Deep in the Heart of Quality," to be held September 13–16, 2009, at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center in Grapevine, TX. The tracks for the 2009 conference are continuum, informatics, regulatory or patient safety, and leadership. You may select among beginner, intermediate, and advance levels when submitting an abstract. Applications will be evaluated using a blind-review process in which reviewers are unaware of applicants' identities. To submit an abstract, visit www.connect2conferences.com/nahq/ws_member/member_login.php.

The deadline for submissions is Friday, October 31, at 11:59 pm Central Time. Abstract notification will be made by February 2009. If you have any questions, please contact Jacki Van Oort at jvanoort@connect2amc.com or at 480/706-1923.

2008 NAHQ Conference Photos and Poster Winners

Conference Photos!
Check out more photos at www.nahq.org/conference/2008/photos

Poster Winners

First place: "The Impact of an Imaged Medical Record on the Peer Review Process" by Maryanne M. Schmid, BSN RN CPHQ
Second place: "The Three-Tier Continuous Readiness Model: Staying Joint Commission–Prepared" by Maureen Katharine Bertram, MSN RN
Third place: "One Academic Medical Center's Efforts to Maintain Normothermia in the Orthopedic Patient" by Jean Mueller, MPS BS RN

Call for Nominations

NAHQ is looking for tomorrow's leaders...we're looking for you! Nominations will be accepted until January 16, 2009. For board nomination and position descriptions, click here. Please note that the presidency is a 3-year position and that all other board positions are held for 2 years. For more information, contact Heidi Benson, nominating team chair, at heidi.benson@lpnt.net or Cassidy Follins at cfollins@nahq.org.

Q Solutions, 2nd Edition, Now Available

Q Solutions: Essential Resources for the Healthcare Quality Professional, 2nd edition, establishes and extends foundational knowledge for healthcare quality professionals across the care continuum. It covers the breadth and depth of the areas critical to professional development and leadership: frameworks for quality management, the linking of science with practice, and the translation of data into information that can be used and understood by both practitioners and patients.

Developed by a team of experts and members of NAHQ, Q Solutions, 2nd edition, provides quality professionals with the tools they will need to measure, monitor, and determine actions and interventions that produce sustainable or improved healthcare quality while controlling costs. A fifth module on healthcare safety culture has been added to the second edition to correspond with the addition of patient safety to the Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ) examination. Modules 1-4 have also been updated to reflect recent changes in national healthcare safety initiatives.
Getting ready for the CPHQ exam? Q Solutions, 2nd edition, is a valuable resource for any healthcare quality professional seeking certification as a CPHQ, particularly in conjunction with the Healthcare Quality Management: Review and Study Session offered by NAHQ. Q Solutions is the official text for this course. Q Solutions is available for purchase at www.nahq.org or by calling 800/966-9392. Customer/nonmember price: $145; member price/list price: $125.

2008 Healthcare Quality Professional Salary Survey

To provide members and certificants with an accurate assessment of their field, NAHQ and the Healthcare Quality Certification Board (HQCB) completed this comprehensive survey of compensation and benefits for quality professionals working in healthcare. Tap into what 28,000 professionals in healthcare quality are reporting about their compensation and benefits. The 2008 Healthcare Quality Professional Salary Survey provides you with a resource for evaluating expectations and compensation packages for quality professionals in the healthcare arena. It may also be used as a tool in assessing the quality management function at your institution and the personnel employed within related departments. The salary survey is available only as a downloadable PDF and is available for purchase exclusively online at www.nahq.org or by calling 800/966-9392. Customer/nonmember price: $215; member price/list price: $75.

NAHQ's New "Tell A Colleague" Program

Introduce your peers and colleagues to NAHQ through its new "Tell a Colleague" program, which provides details on the many benefits of NAHQ membership.

Receive a *$25 coupon (good on all NAHQ products and services) for each member who joins through your referral. As an added bonus, all members who successfully participate through the end of the year will be entered in a drawing for a complimentary conference registration. To access "Tell a Colleague," click here, or visit the NAHQ home page and click on the "Tell a Colleague" link, located on the left side of the screen.

*To receive discount coupons and enter the drawing, referring colleagues must be active NAHQ members. There is no limit on the amount of coupons received; they have no cash value and expire 1 year from the printed date.

National Healthcare Quality Week

NAHQ's National Healthcare Quality Week aims to increase awareness of healthcare quality programs and the professionals who implement them. The weeklong celebration is a great way to help your colleagues and the community-at-large learn about the role of the healthcare quality professional. Likewise, it benefits healthcare quality professionals by featuring these educational opportunities:

Free continuing education (CE) hours throughout October
The Webcast "Using Data to Drive Patient Safety," on Tuesday, October 21, 2–3:30 pm Central Time, sponsored by NAHQ in collaboration with the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management, will cover the use of publicly reported data to improve patient safety. Presenters are Monica Berry, JD BSN LLM CPHRM DFASHRM, and Paul L. Green, MS RN CPHQ. Earn CE credits or contact hours! To register for this event, please click here. Member price: $150; Nonmember price: $200.

To register for any of the above courses or to purchase products click here.

NAHQ Fellowship Program

The NAHQ Fellowship Program was developed by the Healthcare Quality Foundation (HQF) both to recognize NAHQ members who have made outstanding contributions to the field of healthcare quality and to act as a blueprint for an ideal career path in the healthcare quality profession. NAHQ strongly urges all members to review the NAHQ Fellowship application before you decide to apply. Once you are ready, you will need to declare your intent to apply for fellowship to the Fellowship Review Board chair by January 30, 2009. Visit www.nahq.org/awards/fellow.htm to obtain more information and to download the Fellowship application. The 2008 new NAHQ Fellow is Lecia A. Albright, CPHQ, LARA Consulting LLC, Spotsylvania, VA.

HQF Award Winners

Grants

Certification Grant: Cynthia Bridgham, BSN RN, Maine Medical Center, New Gloucester, ME
State Educational Grants: Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, South Dakota, Utah
New Quality Professional: Connie Thornton, Broward Health, Fort Lauderdale, FL

Awards

Distinguished Member: Susan Goodwin, MS RN CPHQ FACHE FNAHQ, HCA Health Corporation of America, Hermitage, TN
Luc R. Pelletier Healthcare Quality Award: Chris Thompson, RN, Texoma Health Care System, Denison, TX
State Excellence Award: Texas (bronze), Indiana (silver), and Tennessee (gold)
Golden Pen Award: Barbara Duffy, MPH RN LHRM, Florida Hospital Ormond Memorial, Ormond Beach, FL
Golden Pen Award—New Author: Denise Henry, MS BSN RN RLNC CPHQ, Women and Infants Hospital, Somerset, MA, and coauthors Fatima R. Muriel, MT ASCP CIC, and Priya Hirway, MS

Winners of Drawings

1-year free membership: Lynn Vining, CPHQ, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, IA
One free NAHQ CPHQ Review Course: Nancy Curdy, RN ANP-C, DeKalb Medical Center, Snellville, GA
One complimentary registration to 2009 conference in Grapevine, TX: Pamela Riddle, MT (ASCP) HHS, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA

JHQ: Call for Papers on Obstetric Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety

Journal for Healthcare Quality (JHQ) editorial board member Pamela K. Scarrow, manager of quality improvement and patient safety at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in Washington, DC, is seeking submissions for a special issue of JHQ on obstetric healthcare quality and patient safety. Manuscripts for the issue, planned for publication in September/October 2009, should be submitted by January 16, 2009. See the Call for Papers for more information. Contact Pam Scarrow, special issue editor, at 202/863-2538 or e-mail pscarrow@acog.org.

This issue of NAHQ E-News is sponsored by CDA Antimicrobial.