(Pre – Meeting note: be sure to print off a COLOR copy of the report for your audience)
Intro:
I have worked in quality for X years. And, I’ve always felt like we do amazing work! But not everyone understands the work of quality and its importance.
I came across a report that I think sheds important light on how we could be thinking about quality and safety here at ORG NAME. And, if we thought about quality differently – we could improve healthcare outcomes AND reduce costs – which is so important to us right now.
The report was published by the National Association for Healthcare Quality.
NAHQ (pronounced Nay-Q) is a national leader in advancing the improvement of healthcare quality and safety. NAHQs goal is to improve quality and safety through the single biggest lever available to healthcare leaders: the workforce. NAHQ supports individuals, organizations and produced research like the report to contribute to the field of Healthcare Quality.
NAHQ is the professional home to 9,000 people working in healthcare quality. They also offer the only accredited certification in healthcare quality, the CPHQ. There are currently 14,000 people who hold this credential.
Let's jump into the key findings of the 2022 Healthcare Quality and Safety Workforce report.
The report says,
The antecedent (or precursor) to better healthcare at lower costs is a coordinated, competent workforce. We will reduce variability in healthcare delivery when we reduce variability in workforce skills – and it’s important for employers to engage in and take ownership of this issue.
The report also highlights that the view of quality has been too narrow – focused more on regulatory and compliance and improvement. NAHQ thinks the workforce needs to expand the level and type of work being done in quality and safety to ensure organizations are ready to meet the challenges in healthcare.
NAHQ’s Healthcare Quality Framework- aka the wheel- represent all the competencies that must be present in a high functioning quality organization and are the key to leveraging healthcare’s goals of today and tomorrow. Organizations missing any one component, have bases left uncovered.
The report shows that work being completed in quality and safety emphasizes regulatory accreditation, safety, and quality leadership and integration – which are important, but is a very narrow way to look at quality.
The analysis also shows that there is too little focus on population health and care transitions, performance and process improvement, health data analytics, professional engagement, and quality review and accountability.
This needs attention because these areas represent the future of healthcare delivery.
NAHQ believes strongly, that a deficiency in any one area will cause deficiencies in others – all of the domains of the framework should be connected and coordinated.
In addition to the overall findings, NAHQ provided a case example of how workforce competencies are variable within systems.
These bars represent individual people working in quality; these people work at the Same System.
They have the Same Title, but work in Different Locations.
Look at the variability in level of work - which is represented by the height of the bars.
Look at the variability in the type of work – which is represented by color of the bars.
Sometimes this is intentional based on needs of that particular location. Many times, it is not.
This is because healthcare quality roles, responsibilities and functions have been developed without a standard – and there is a high degree of variation in positions, skills, and competencies.
Data like this is coming from NAHQ’s national data set and from organizations like ours that implement NAHQs offering called Workforce Accelerator.
Workforce Accelerator is a program that organizations like Kaiser Permanente, the Veteran’s Health Administration and many others are implementing with NAHQ to better assess, coordinate and upskill their workforce.
This work was featured in Modern Healthcare’s Quality and Safety issue – which was released Oct. 3.
NAHQ’s research also confirmed that individuals who hold the CPHQ certification are performing at higher ends of the competency spectrum, than their non-CPHQ peers.
(presenter note: highlight individuals who are CPHQ certified at your organization and ask for support to certify more).
Increasingly, healthcare leaders are recognizing the value of CPHQ.
Dr. Jeff DeLisi, CEO of Roper St. Francis Healthcare says – ‘ all hospitals want to see board Certification for their physicians. When talking about something as important as quality and safety, do you want your staff to be CPHQs and have that certification? As a CEO, the answer for me, is yes’.
NAHQ had recommendations for Regulatory, Accreditation and Ratings organizations and people working in quality as well.
To be mindful of your time, I will simply share with you the recommendations for employers.
NAHQ recommends that employers
Do not isolate quality functions by department or into clinical and non-clinical silos.
Instead, they should expand and act upon quality in the broadest context, incorporating all domains of quality and safety included in NAHQ’s Healthcare Quality Competency Framework.
Additionally, employers should develop a proactive, clear staffing plan that articulates who is responsible for which quality and safety work at what level.
The work should be coordinated within and across the organization and the continuum of care.
And finally, employers should create a workforce development program that supports competency and skill development of the quality staff.
Employers need to engage in supporting their quality workforce with a focus on advancing competencies and allocating professional development resources for this purpose.
See slide and add your request to leadership:
What is your ask?
For CPHQ preparation?
To have your team sit for the CPHQ exam?
To consider other NAHQ Team Training opportunities?
To implement NAHQ’s Workforce Accelerator?
Thank you!
(presenter note: reminder to send an electronic version of the report and a thank you email to those who you presented to).
