Volume 2 | March 6, 2018
Register for the May 8 Annual Conference; Submit a QI poster; IAHQ launches new website; Congratulate ILPEx awardees; Provide AHRQ feedback on QIs
IAHQ News is a semi-monthly communication to members and non-members of the Illinois Association for Healthcare Quality (IAHQ) about upcoming events and resources available to healthcare quality improvement professionals in Illinois and the surrounding areas. To submit items that will be of interest, please send an email to info@iahquality.org
Register for the 2018 IAHQ Annual Conference; early-bird rates apply until March 30!
It's time to register for the 2018 IAHQ Annual conference. Register soon to take advantage of the early-bird rate, which expires March 30!

There will be presentations on:

  • How ACOs are improving care and outcomes
  • Updates on the American Heart Association's Get With the Guidelines Program
  • Strategies for improving care coordination beyond hospital walls
  • How clinical quality measures are developed and implications for care at the bedside
  • Lean transformation at the University of Chicago Medicine
  • Managing team dynamics to drive QI

Early-bird rate until March 30
$145 - member
$195 - nonmember (includes IAHQ membership)

Rate after March 30
$195 - member
$215 - nonmember (does not include IAHQ membership)

To register and view the conference agenda, visit: iahquality.org

The conference will be held on Tuesday, May 8, 2018, at the NIU Naperville Conference Center, 1120 E. Diehl Rd., Naperville, IL 60563.

CPHQ CE

Continuing education credit for Certified Professionals in Healthcare Quality will be offered.

We are pleased to share that the IMEC ILPEx program is a supporting sponsor of the 2018 IAHQ Annual Conference.

New this year: Enter the poster competition!

During the conference networking reception, IAHQ will hold a poster competition. Plan to share your QI and patient safety successes from the inpatient, ambulatory, long-term care, and other settings. If you have an existing poster, there is no need to recreate your poster. You are encouraged to present posters you have used at state, regional or national meetings. Additional details to come. To enter, please send an email with the following information to: info@iahquality.org

  1. Project title
  2. Abstract including problem statement, actions and results (do not exceed 250 words)
  3. Sponsoring organization
  4. Project team composition
  5. Project lead contact information

Calling all sponsors

Please show your organizational commitment to advancing knowledge and improving care by sponsoring and exhibiting at the conference. Opportunities include general sponsorship, products, services, door prizes and the new "Accent on Quality Showcase" before the reception and poster review and competition.

To discuss 2018 IAHQ Annual Conference sponsorship and support opportunities, please email: info@iahquality.org
Congratulations to the Illinois hospitals recognized by the Illinois Performance Excellence (ILPEx) program
IAHQ is pleased to have been a supporting partner of the IMEC ILPEx Conference on Enterprise Excellence on February 22 held at Hamburger University in Oak Brook. There we a number of health sector case examples of how the Baldrige Performance Excellence framework is being used to drive performance excellence, quality improvement and patient safety. Attendees heard from:

  • David Fox, CEO of Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital about creating a new future through the pursuit of performance excellence and their journey and how it led to being awarded the national Malcolm Baldrige National Award.
  • Sherri Hill at Elmhurst Hospital about being a "positive deviant"
  • Craig Thompson and Joe Cruitt on the Baldrige journey of the Ameircan College of Healthcare Executives
  • Todd Roberts of Memorial Health System on using a 30/30/30 Lean Six Sigma Approach to reach new frontiers in quality and safety

There were several non-healthcare presentations that provided valuable insights on how using the Baldrige framework to drive improved performance, which have implications for health care too. to view the presentation slides, please use this link: http://ilpex.org/develop/conference/  

ILPEx Recognition Program Awards

IAHQ would especially like to recognize the achievements of two Illinois hospitals in their quest for performance excellence.


Through the ILPEx Recognition program, IMEC leverages the Baldrige Excellence Framework as a foundation for driving organizational improvement and then prioritizes those improvements through a range of hands-on, goal-oriented solutions in continuous improvement, strategy, workforce, and more.

The Baldrige Excellence Framework helps organizations evaluate performance, assess where improvements or innovation are most needed, and get results in the following management areas:

  • Leadership
  • Strategy
  • Customer Engagement
  • Measurement, Analysis and Knowledge Management
  • Workforce
  • Operations
  • Results

Congratulations to these organizations and the teams who strive to deliver the best in organizational performance and patient care.

For more information about current and past awardees, or about the program in general, please visit: www.ILPEx.org To explore serving as an Examiner for the ILPEx Awards for Excellence in 2018, please visit: www.ilpex.org/develop/examiner-information .  The application deadline is April 6!
IAHQ Launches New Website!
There have been some exciting developments at IAHQ in recent months. In order to meet member needs better, IAHQ has developed and launched a new website at: iahquality.org (The URL address is NEW. Please bookmark it.)

Past visitors also will notice a new IAHQ logo and theme line - Advancing Knowledge, Improving Care - which communicates the heart of the association's mission and the commitment of our members and profession. The new site will provide members and nonmembers easier access to news, resources, event registration, webinar recordings, as well as career opportunities. The site will evolve over time to serve our member members. Please share resources, which you feel your colleagues will find valuable. The previous IAHQ website will be removed soon. Please use the new URL for the latest information.
New IAHQ webinar: Simple Lean
Lean is a fabulous method to simplify and streamline all kinds of work processes. Yet many have noted that Lean is rarely applied correctly. Adopters commonly get obsessed with the Lean “tools” and some get lost in the theory. One innovative manufacturer has found a simpler way to apply Lean and his methods are being adopted worldwide. Paul Akers’ 2 Second Lean book and his hundreds of YouTube videos show that a simpler version of Lean is possible. This presentation will introduce you to Paul’s thinking and explain how his model has informed the work – and life – of the presenter.

In this 1-hour webinar, you will hear from: Tony Heath, a certified Lean improvement consultant and a six sigma black belt for Optum, a business of UnitedHealth Group. He has led QI within the insurance industry for 18 years. He holds a PhD in Family Therapy from Purdue University and most of an MBA from Benedictine University. He is a Certified Professional in HealthCare Quality. Register here.
AHRQ seeks public comment on scientific acceptability of its quality indicators for Quality Improvement efforts
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has published a Request for Information (RFI), which seeks information about the use of the AHRQ Quality Indicators (QIs) by the general public and the health care industry for Quality Improvement purposes. The AHRQ QIs are standardized, evidence-based measures of health care quality that can be used with readily available hospital inpatient administrative data to measure and track clinical performance and outcomes. 

AHRQ is conducting a study to: (1) document knowledge and evidence about the scientific acceptability of the AHRQ QIs for quality improvement; (2) document and synthesize information about the strengths and limitations of the AHRQ QIs for quality improvement; (3) identify areas of disagreement, if any, in the evidence; and (4) develop suggestions for refinement or improvement in the indicators, particularly those that make the AHRQ QIs more useful for quality improvement. As part of this study, AHRQ has published an RFI in the Federal Register to obtain information from stakeholders who have not published their experiences using the AHRQ QIs or who wish to provide additional information beyond what they have published. This information will be used by AHRQ and an Expert Workgroup convened by AHRQ to arrive at recommendations about retaining, retiring, or modifying each of the AHRQ QIs to maximize their value to the health care industry and policymakers for improving the quality of patient care.

The list of AHRQ QIs is found at https://www.qualityindicators.ahrq.gov/. The RFI is found in the Federal Register at - 2018-03243 . A Federal Register Notice extending the closing date for response to the RFI to March 16, 2018 is found at 2018-03964.

Please take the time to share your information about the value of the QIs for your organization and your suggestions for improvement with AHRQ by responding to the RFI.
Illinois Association for Healthcare Quality | info@iahquality.org | www.iahquality.org