Advancing Quality in Your Organizations

To say that 2021 has been another challenging year is an understatement. Even with COVID-19 vaccines widely available in the United States, the Delta variant surged state-to-state, from the Southeast to the Northwest. Hospitals remained braced for emergency response while also dealing with high staff vacancy levels, particularly among registered nurses. And, our public health system continued to struggle with inequities in healthcare delivery, lack of data transparency and blurred lines of decision-making authority.

While frustrating, these challenges mean healthcare quality professionals need each other now more than ever, and I’m proud that NAHQ is the professional home for this profession, that is building visibility and credibility in healthcare.

This year, it has been my honor to serve as your President. I have had the privilege of convening a talented, committed Board of Directors who has supported staff in launching new research and organizational solutions to create a more quality-focused, quality-capable workforce within healthcare organizations. Our research and organizational workforce development efforts provide healthcare executives with the information and the tools they need to make strategic decisions on how to advance quality in their organizations.

For example:

• In NAHQ research published in the September 2021 issue of The Journal for Healthcare Quality, we validated those individuals achieving and maintaining the Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality^® (CPHQ) credential perform work at more advanced levels across all eight domains of the NAHQ Healthcare Quality Competency Framework.
• Building on this insight, we launched Workforce Accelerator^TM, a scalable, three-phased enterprise solution for healthcare organizations to partner with NAHQ in a data-based approach to assessing, planning and upskilling their quality workforce.
• We also launched NAHQ’s benchmarking program to support improved decision-making by organizations in healthcare quality resourcing. The benchmarking program enables healthcare leaders to develop a data-driven business case for needed resources by informing the organization’s resourcing requirements.

There is naturally a relationship between the performance and job satisfaction of healthcare quality teams and the resources made available to them by the organizations they serve. That is why it is so important for healthcare quality professionals to take initiative and let healthcare leaders know about the important organizational resources that NAHQ has to offer. To make this easier, we have redesigned NAHQ.org to provide even better, more accessible information. I hope you will take some time before the end of the year to review our Organizational Workforce Solutions and NAHQ Intelligence and share links with your leadership as well.

As I look forward to the new year and hand the gavel to Emmett Ervin, your 2022 President, what I hope for you and for NAHQ is that we continue to advance making healthcare better, healthcare organizations stronger and healthcare quality a profession that is at the forefront of a better tomorrow. Thank you all for the privilege of serving you this year.

Marian Savage, PhD RN NEA-BC CPHQ PMP
NAHQ President