Last week, I had the distinct honor of speaking at the Iowa Hospital Association’s (IHA) Advancing Health Care: A Combined Conference for BHAI, IAHQ and IONL. Attendees included members of: Behavioral Health Affiliate of Iowa, Iowa Association for Health Care Quality, and the Iowa Organization for Nursing Leadership. I wanted to share some of my takeaways from that experience with you as I reflect on how powerful it is when healthcare professionals dedicate time to come together for a common goal – to advance their individual and organization’s quality knowledge and standards.

It was wonderful to talk to such an attentive audience about why quality matters now more than ever in our endeavor to achieve healthcare excellence and how NAHQ can help elevate the profession and advance the discipline. I shared eye-opening new NAHQ data revealing just how differently quality is defined across the industry. These findings underscore how critical it is to align on the industry standard NAHQ Healthcare Quality Competency Framework™ if we are going to succeed at creating a competent and coordinated workforce ready to do more with less. The key takeaway was how quality & safety can be the key to solve for the biggest challenges facing healthcare today.

I outlined four key areas that are critical to leading with quality in order to achieve excellence:

  • WHAT IS QUALITY – Resetting your definition of what quality is and can be.
  • WHO IS QUALITY – Expanding your perspective on who in your organization should be responsible for improving quality & safety. (Spoiler alert, it’s everyone.)
  • WHY QUALITY MATTERS – Learning more about the biggest challenges facing healthcare and how quality can be a powerful tool to address them.
  • HOW QUALITY IS ACHIEVED – Discovering innovative new ways to unleash you and your team’s true potential to improve healthcare through quality & safety excellence.

At NAHQ, we believe that a coordinated, competent workforce is critical to achieve healthcare excellence. And we believe people have enormous capacity and drive to make things better. Are you looking for actionable steps you can take to advance the quality mission?

Here are three things you can do individually or as an organization to make a difference:

  1. Become a NAHQ member or leverage your existing membership. At NAHQ, the “Q” is you. Membership gives you the opportunity to grow your network and meet others committed to advancing healthcare quality & safety. You also benefit from robust professional development resources, leading industry events like NAHQ next, Healthcare Quality Week and… be part of a community of like-minded professionals for collaboration and support.
  2. Join the nearly 15,000 certified professionals in healthcare quality (CPHQs) who are demonstrating their value and confirming their commitment to quality with the only accredited certification in healthcare quality. Our research shows that CPHQs work at higher levels of competency compared to non-CPHQs in ALL EIGHT domains of the Healthcare Quality Competency. There are many benefits of earning and maintaining the CPHQ. You can make a bigger impact at work – with patients, members, residents, your co-workers, your community.
  3. Be a quality CHAMPION.Spread the word to your peers. Make the case to your leadership.  NAHQ offers resources, talking points, and solutions you can use to bring the vital benefits of quality to your organization. Because if we each become our best “Q” then together… as a workforce…​we can become…a true force for quality.

I am grateful for the opportunity to be able to carry our message more broadly to wider groups of professionals about advancing healthcare quality and HOW that can be achieved.

The quality movement is catching on. The workforce is eager for a common standard… a clear “way.”

NAHQ is here to lead the way – Advancing quality. Advancing healthcare. Achieving excellence.

Patricia (Patty) Resnik, MJ, MBA, RRT, FACHE, CPHQ, CHC, CHPC

NAHQ President

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