Celebrating 14 years of leading innovations across the Ryan White community.

 

NQC e-Newsletter | Your expert guide to resources and technical assistance focusing on improving HIV care.

 

Happy summer!  I hope you are enjoying your summer activities.  As NQC begins a new fiscal year, we are excited by the opportunities to make further inroads into helping Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program (RWHAP) recipients to enhance their clinical quality management (CQM) programs.  As we reflect back on NQC's 14 years of serving the RWHAP community, we have seen growth in a national commitment to quality improvement through the implementation of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy.  NQC is proud to be part of the continued efforts to ensure optimal HIV care and treatment for all.  
 
In this month's newsletter, NQC highlights the development of a consumer track in the online Quality Academy . Over the coming months, new tutorials will be posted that will assist consumers in building the skills required to become active members in a recipient's clinical quality management efforts.  This is an important focus for NQC and this set of tutorials will augment our Training of Consumers on Quality Program.  Please encourage your consumers to take this first tutorial. 

Regards,  

Clemens Steinbock
Director, National Quality Center

> This Issue
In This Issue...
> NQC Update | Quality Academy Consumer Track
Featured Article
> NQC Request | Coming Soon: Trainers of Consumers on Quality Plus (TCQPlus) Program
> Consumer Perspective | Aaron Wittnebel.
> National TA Webinar | Health Numeracy.
> NQC Offering | New Job Forum in Newsletter

> NQC Offering | Quality Academy Consumer Track
 
For many years, the National Quality Center (NQC) has been training consumers around the country to effectively assist them to be actively involved in quality improvement-related activities. The Quality Academy's Consumer Track takes this in-person training and other consumer-related resources to a whole new level-consumers [EC1]  are now able to access training on key consumer-focused topics at any time via our Quality Academy's new Consumer Track.  Our first tutorial is on patient self-management.  This is a tutorial from which anyone can benefit, not just consumers. I addition, providers would benefit from these tutorials by gaining additional insights into how to best meet the needs of consumers that want to be involved in quality management programs.
 
 
The first tutorial Consumer Self-management addresses building the skills necessary to be better self-managers in regards to HIV treatment. Providers will gain insight into how best to support consumers by a better understanding of their self-management needs. In the next three months, NQC will be releasing consumer-focused tutorials that give an overview on infrastructure, performance measurement and conducting improvement activities.  In the future, we will have a tutorial that directly addresses how consumers can become involved in quality management activities. Many of the ideas and methods will be drawn directly from our experience with the NQC Training of Consumers on Quality+ program.    
 
Over time, the Consumer Track will be comprised of multiple tutorials to assist consumers in developing the skills necessary to become effective participants in the clinical quality management activities within a RWHAP recipient or subrecipient. These tutorials will discuss various aspects of the skills that a consumer would need to be active participants in a recipients quality management program and just as importantly it will help recipients gain a better understanding of the needs of the consumer. 
 
The initial tutorial is available now on the NQC Quality Academy. Check back as we add more.

 > NQC Face-to-Face Trainings

 

NQC will be posting the training schedule for the coming fiscal year (July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017)  by September.  Please check the e-newsletter monthly for the announcement of the trainings or the NQC website at NationalQualityCenter.org.  In addition, special announcements are sent to your Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program Directors when training are announced. 
> NQC Offering | NQC Game Guide
 
Summer is here and it is time to take a break and have some fun. NQC is here to help!
 
Research on adult learning tells us that learning experiences are most effective when adult audiences are engaged through interactive and hands-on exercises.   The NQC Game Guide includes 21 games and is organized around five "critical concepts" for quality improvement-data and measurement; systems; developing changes; testing and making changes; and cooperation. Some of the games are classics in the quality improvement field, some come from other disciplines, and some are NQC creations. All have been field tested and participant approved!
 
The purpose of this guide is to make these games more broadly available by describing how they work and by clarifying the lessons they help to teach. Each game description contains the learning objectives, necessary resources, detailed instructions for playing the game, tips on handling potential pitfalls, and key discussion points to link the activity with quality improvement teachings.
 
Have some summer fun with the NQC Game Guide! | Click here to download

> July 2016 | Issue 97 | Vol 6 
Quick Links


  


 Join the Leaders!  Take the QI Challenge and find out your QI IQ
> Upcoming  Events | July

There will be no National TA Webinar for July



National Quality Center

New York State Department of Health

AIDS Institute

90 Church Street, 13th floor

New York, NY 10007-2919

Phone | 212.417.4730

Fax | 212.417.4684

[email protected]

 

Improving HIV Care.

> Consumer Perspective | Aaron Wittnebel

As Director of Advocacy and Development for Minnesota's Minnkota  Health Project, it is often Aaron Wittnebel's job to serve as a spokesperson for consumers. But he can also see issues from the perspective of a policymaker. Having been a house sergeant/page for over two years in the Minnesota House of Representatives and later served for over four years as mayor of Lake Park, Minnesota, Aaron has an appreciation of policymaking at the state and local level.
 
"I'm the policy wonk that reads all the fine print and understands it," says Aaron. "While there are specific processes and requirements, sometimes someone needs to be there to make sure that they are being followed."
 
He drew on these skills as a member of the Minnesota HIV Services Planning Council. He served as the Chair of the Committee for Operations.
 
"I wanted to be on a committee that was making decisions and driving the process," says Aaron. "I just didn't want to be there casting a vote."
 
Aaron is currently serving on the Minnesota Cultural and Ethnic Communities Leadership Council, which advises the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) on reducing disparities that affect racial and ethnic groups within DHS programs. He represents Native Americans as well as rural areas.  
 
"We look closely at DHS programs in terms of what is not working, what is missing, and what can be done better," says Aaron. "We report directly to the legislature."
 
Aaron is also on the board of Minnkota Health Project, which is an all-volunteer organization providing support services to 76 counties in greater Minnesota and North and South Dakota. In the past year, Minnkota has been re-organizing its peer support groups. This process grew out of information gained while attending the National Quality Center's Training of Consumers on Quality in 2015.
 
"While networking with other participants, we learned how they structure their peer activities," says Aaron. "We wanted to foster skills among our consumers so that they could take on leadership roles in the peer support groups and on the board of the organization."
 
Over the past year, Minnkota has been conducting facilitator training for the peer groups. This is designed to create a sense of ownership within the groups and to provide more stability-groups are no longer dependent on a single person since there are multiple people who can serve as the facilitator.
 > National TA Webinar |
There is no National TA Webinar for July 

> NQC Offering | New Job Forum in Newsletter

Don't forget, your job posting can now go into the NQC e-Newsletter and be seen by over 3,000 Ryan White Program staff
 
Send your postings | [email protected]
> About Us

 

We provide no-cost, state-of-the-art technical assistance to all Ryan White Program-funded grantees to improve the quality of HIV care nationwide.  

 

Send questions, comments, or suggestions | [email protected]   

 

This document is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number U28HA041321200. This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.