HMI creates Center for Clinical Quality to advance excellence in health care and patient safety

HMI has established the Center for Clinical Quality (CCQ) with the goal of forging collaborations that produce sustainable improvements in patient safety and service delivery while helping to nurture and sustain a culture of continuous quality improvement. The CCQ will work with health care organizations through long-term engagements as well as workshops and training programs. 

The CCQ’s programs and educational opportunities reflect the interest throughout the global health care community in clinical quality improvement. In emerging economies such as India and Thailand, as health care systems have advanced and markets have become more competitive, accreditation has emerged as a key differentiator for organizations striving to attract patients and leading clinicians. In countries with more mature or entrenched health care systems, such as those in Europe, providers are reexamining their health care services in order to deal with an aging population, increased demand among knowledgeable health care consumers, and pressures associated with cost-effectiveness.

Sharon Kleefield says that an important role of the CCQ is to bring together international experts who have implemented approaches to quality improvement to discuss how to address local challenges.

“The CCQ provides an opportunity to work on the issues facing health care services locally, while learning and collaborating from Harvard faculty and international experts who have implemented approaches with positive outcomes,” said Sharon Kleefield, PhD, HMI director of health care quality.

Through the CCQ, HMI offers customized train-the-trainer programs and expert consulting services in three major areas:

Quality Improvement & Patient Safety: For leading health care organizations, instituting an effective quality management system is part of a long-term strategy aimed at organization-wide improvements in patient care, professional staff development, and service delivery. HMI provides education and training to foster clinical, administrative, and professional improvements, and collaborates with organizations to develop comprehensive quality improvement initiatives. Harvey Makadon, MD, HMI vice president for global programs, said that establishing a dialogue between clinicians is the critical first step in developing a hospital-wide quality management system. “We have found that there is tremendous value in simply providing a forum for doctors, nurses, support staff, and administrators to talk together about quality issues in their hospital,” he said. 

Accreditation Preparation: Accreditation is a powerful indicator of a health care organization’s commitment to high-quality health care, continuous improvement, and patient safety. Using the benchmarks associated with global best practices, HMI works with hospitals to enhance their readiness for accreditation, and help develop a plan aimed at raising the standards for health care quality across the continuum of patient care. HMI continues to work with these organization following accreditation to help them maintain a culture of quality and continually improve.

John Helfrick, seen here with nurses in India, says that implementing quality standards that can be measured is really the first step towards improving patient care.

“Patients are trying to decide how to differentiate one health care provider from another, and accreditation is serving as a stamp of approval,” said John Helfrick, DDS, MS, FACD, FICD, a senior consultant at HMI who has served in numerous academic, administrative, and clinical capacities in the area of clinical quality and patient safety improvement, including as Chairman of the Board of Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations. 

Centers of Excellence & Departments of Distinction: Health care organizations with an established record of clinical excellence may apply for recognition as a Center of Excellence or Department of Distinction. HMI grants this recognition to hospitals or clinical departments that have attained international benchmarks in their areas of clinical focus. HMI offers these organizations opportunities for continuing education and professional development led by internationally recognized faculty.

The HMI Center for Clinical Quality also offers a variety of workshops aimed at equipping institutions and individuals with the knowledge and skills to create and sustain improvements in patient care. These interactive workshops incorporate multiple learning formats, including didactic teaching, large and small-group exercises, and case discussions, and may be customized to cover a wide range of areas, including clinical quality management, risk management, infection control, nursing leadership and professional development, performance measurement and indicator development, and methods and measurement of patient satisfaction.

Harvey Makadon: “We have found that there is tremendous value in simply providing a forum for doctors, nurses, support staff, and administrators to talk together about quality issues in their hospital.”

The CCQ also offers programs designed to help leaders and managers understand their role in developing and maintaining a culture of quality. “It is important for health care organizations to approach quality improvement as a culture change, not merely as the output of an intensive preparation,” said Makadon.

The core members of HMI’s CCQ faculty are Harvey Makadon, MD, vice president of global programs; Sharon Kleefield, PhD, director of health care quality, Elizabeth Brown, RN, MSN, MBA, director of clinical services, and John Helfrick, DDS, MS, FACD, FICD, senior consultant at HMI. The CCQ also draws upon faculty from Harvard Medical School and its affiliated hospitals.

For more information
To learn more about the HMI Center for Clinical Quality, visit the CCQ page on the HMI website, where you can find information about HMI’s quality initiatives and download the CCQ brochure. Also, members of the CCQ team will be attending the annual conference of the International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua) in London in October (see sidebar).

HMI World welcomes comments from readers. Please write to let us know what you think of this article.