A new alliance, a new advance for healthcare Quality & patient safety
November 20, 2024Share:
Yesterday, a truly groundbreaking alliance was announced between NAHQ and The Joint Commission. This Alliance marks a momentous day for NAHQ as well as a tremendous step forward for the advancement of healthcare Quality and patient safety around the world.
Hopefully you read the email Stephanie Mercado and I sent yesterday and perhaps even saw the exclusive article in Modern Healthcare.
As President of the NAHQ Board of Directors, and a career-long advocate for high-Quality, safe patient care, I am incredibly proud of the Alliance and all that it can help us accomplish. As members of the NAHQ community of Quality & Safety champions, I hope you will see this as a proud day for you, too.
With this Alliance, NAHQ will transform healthcare in several ways.
Uniting to a universal set of Quality competencies. NAHQ created the Healthcare Quality Competency FrameworkTM, defining the Quality competencies required for high-functioning organizations. The Joint Commission will endorse the Framework, recommending it to healthcare organizations and opening the door for NAHQ to help implement the Framework through our competency-based team training and Workforce Accelerator®. NAHQ, in turn, recognizes and endorses Joint Commission and JCI accreditation and certification approaches.
Skilling healthcare professionals. The Joint Commission is endorsing the CPHQ®, the only accredited certification in healthcare Quality and even going so far as to have their surveyors and reviewers obtain and maintain the certification. NAHQ research shows the CPHQs function at higher levels of competency than their non-CPHQ peers, so this will go a long way to helping upskill and coordinate the workforce.
I am particularly pleased that NAHQ and The Joint Commission will offer 25 annual scholarships to fund CPHQ attainment in underfunded organizations, helping provide equitable access to the CPHQ.
Co-development of best-in-class training and education. NAHQ is in the midst of developing a series of Micro-Credentials, one for each of the eight domains of the Competency Framework. As part of this portfolio, NAHQ is collaborating with The Joint Commission to develop a micro-credential in the domain of Regulatory & Accreditation.
A life-long learner myself, going back to Law School and completing my Master of Jurisprudence later in my career, I wholeheartedly support the journey of continuous learning and earning micro-credentials is an excellent way to stay current on industry standards!
I will be enrolling in the Regulatory micro-credential as soon as it is released, and I am looking forward to the opportunity to further my regulatory knowledge and expertise with other healthcare professionals.
But we don’t have to wait to start our continuing education. NAHQ’s Micro-Credential in Health Data Analytics is available to register for now! This Micro-Credential offers a comprehensive survey of this relevant and expanding area including how to collect, consolidate and validate data as well as how to use data visualization and storytelling techniques to drive better decision making. I encourage you to learn more about it or register now.
I hope this letter has given you a good overview of the Alliance between NAHQ and The Joint Commission and the potential positive impact it will have for the goal we all share - the highest-Quality and safe care for patients. If you would like to learn more about it, visit NAHQ.org/jointcommission-alliance.
Patricia (Patty) Resnik, MJ, MBA, RRT, FACHE, CPHQ, CHC, CHPC
NAHQ President
There is a roadmap to healthcare Quality excellence. NAHQ can help you follow it.
The NAHQ Healthcare Quality Competency Framework™ serves as the industry-standard, defining the Quality Safety competencies, skills and behaviors required to advance Quality & Safety excellence across the healthcare continuum.
This expert-created, data-informed framework is continuously validated and updated by NAHQ to ensure it provides the most up-to-date information, guiding professionals, organizations, and the healthcare industry to create a competent, coordinated workforce prepared to deliver healthcare excellence.
