OFMQ Leads Groundbreaking Collaborative to Align Hospital Leadership With Clinical Performance Measures
July, 2007 -- Strong leadership from hospital executives, board members and physicians is essential to drive successful operations and quality of care in today’s hospitals. While measuring the impact of hospital leadership activities on hospital performance remains elusive, experts agree that leadership engagement is critical to continual performance improvement.
Oklahoma Foundation for Medical Quality (OFMQ), under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), is leading the first major national initiative to align hospital leadership with clinical performance improvement measures. Initially announced in September of 2006, this public-private collaboration, including advisors from 55 industry organizations and over 130 hospitals nationwide, is developing an assessment tool help hospitals identify and adopt quality-oriented leadership systems and ultimately improve clinical care processes and outcomes.
Collaborating as core team members with OFMQ in the initiative are the Department of Health Management and Policy (HMP) at the University of Iowa College of Public Health, the Health Services Advisory Group (HSAG), CMS, and Premier/CareScience.
Representatives from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), the American Hospital Association (AHA), and Sanofi-Aventis are among the key members of the HLQAT advisory group.
Developing an Effective Assessment Tool
The primary product of the initiative is the Hospital Leadership and Quality Assessment Tool (HLQAT), a comprehensive, standardized tool designed to help boards and executives determine their hospital’s strengths, weaknesses and capacity to foster changes for improved quality of care. The self-administered assessment tool examines leadership structures, processes and activities associated with high performance in clinical quality.
Key considerations and objectives in the development of HLQAT are to:
• ensure ease of use and implementation by all hospitals,
• provide the hospital industry with benchmarking data to measure milestone progress,
• provide participating hospitals with a road map for achieving and sustaining performance excellence,
• expand current research by establishing the critical characteristics of effective leadership as the foundation for performance improvement,
• complement the toolkits and other resources being developed by multiple partners in the project,
• associate specific leadership dimensions with clinical performance improvement.
Technical Input and Extensive Testing Critical to Success
OFMQ is testing the HLQAT through focus groups with hospital CEOs, trustees, medical staff leadership and others representing 130 hospitals nationwide. Survey research experts are providing input on the technical properties of the tool. Additionally, HLQAT will be pilot-tested with hospitals in 15 states.
OFMQ expects to share the results on initial testing in the fall of 2007. The summary findings of the project, including the HLQAT, will be disseminated through CMS, all QIOs, and national professional and hospital associations. Findings will be produced and published in peer-reviewed literature through 2007, and nationwide distribution and implementation of the project will be pursued into 2008.
For more information, visit www.ofmq.com/hospital-leadership-collaborative