KEY WASHINGTON HEALTH FOUNDATION STRATEGIC INITIATIVES:
QUALITY INITIATIVE
One of the key strategic priorities of the Washington Health Foundation since early in its activation in the early 1990s has been a commitment to improving the quality of health care. WHF leadership viewed it as an opportunity to engage health care leadership in bigger change efforts than was the appetite at the time. In late 1995, WHF hired a Director of Quality to help assess practical ways to advance health care quality change in Washington state. It did this in partnership with the Washington State Hospital Association.
A first major step was to undertake a pilot project with the Northwest Hospital Council to test two data instruments as the basis for collective quality improvement efforts. Both are found in the Major Project summaries for WHF- the Maryland Quality Improvement Project tool and the Patient Satisfaction and Health Status tool of the Picker Institute.
Both of these projects proved the value of pursuing this strategic path, and the Foundation undertook an assessment of even bigger strategic and program possibilities in 1998, again in collaboration with the Washington State Hospital Association. Options assessed were based on a national review of programs, and covered a broad spectrum- information sharing, building quality coalitions, producing quality information, policy and advocacy, and more.
WHF selected several of the options in order to stimulate a comprehensive quality strategy across the state. It provided much of the resources to the state hospital association and many members in advancing this work, and challenged them to commit to this as a top health system priority.
Major specific activities and investments included:
Formation of Local Quality Networks, including a Critical Access Hospital Quality Network serving groups of rural hospitals across the state.
An Annual Quality Leadership Conference held over seven years.
Other topical Quality educational programs and materials, including two major physician-hospital relationship conferences, a series of practical quality management educational programs for staff, and training manuals for key quality management topics- many are noted in WHF’s Major Activity Summaries.
Major grants to WSHA to advance its work with its members, including a $150,000 investment in 2007 to help it build a staff and leadership capacity to engage in the work.
Grants to hospitals and other providers to engage in quality change work.
Public polling and focus group work that identified perceptions of quality among the public, along with data and research that identified actual levels of quality. Generally, Washingtonians viewed quality as a strength of the system, while other studies showed that there were significant problems that needed to be addressed.
One of the key successes of WHF’s effort was that the quality imperative stuck within the state hospital association and it became a leadership organization with respect to quality. Over time, many forgot the critical role that WHF played in initiating this, but the point remains that WHF’s leadership was essential to its evolution.