WCHQ – News & Views Fall 2010

From the President & CEO...
Day to day efforts shine amidst backdrop of major initiatives

Chris Queram,
President and CEO

In the last couple of issues of News & Views we’ve focused on prominent initiatives such as our involvement in the state of Wisconsin’s plans for an interoperable health information exchange system and the strategic priorities for our organization for 2011 and beyond. These worthy endeavors have far-reaching consequences and certainly occupy a good deal of our time and efforts (continue to look for updates about these topics in future editions of this newsletter).

However, as we work on these initiatives, a group of dedicated individuals has been diligently meeting by phone at 8:00 a.m. every Wednesday morning since 2004, carrying out the essential mission of WCHQ. And they’re about to break some new ground that is every bit as important to our future as these prominent initiatives.

Wanted:
Your Feedback

In the next week, you will receive an e-mail invitation to participate in a web-based survey about this newsletter. We are very interested in your thoughts and feedback. Your input will be valuable in helping us create a newsletter that suits your needs. Your answers to the questions are most important and will be kept confidential. Thank you in advance for your help.

The WCHQ web site (www.wchq.org) is an essential tool for sharing the results of our performance measurement and improvement activities. Here are some interesting statistics for the site.

The Analyst’s Perspective
Member organizations’ quality measures point to statistically significant improvement

Matt Gigot
Project Analyst

Since WCHQ’s inception in 2003, the primary focus of our organization has been to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of healthcare in the state of Wisconsin via public reporting and the sharing of best practices. While there can be no question that member organizations have worked and learned together to enhance the care they provide, we have not yet had the opportunity to assess whether significant improvement in performance has occurred among member organizations. In this installment of the Analyst’s Perspective, we begin to examine this crucial question: Are member organizations seeing a statistically significant improvement in their quality measures over time?

Member Spotlight
Luther Midelfort

Member spotlight is making its debut in this edition of News & Views. Periodically, we will highlight a member organization and their improvement efforts.

Achieving excellent results
What are the structures and processes that need to be in place for a health care organization to achieve clinical excellence? Randall Linton, MD, president and CEO and Deb Fischer, vice president of quality, shared the experiences of Luther Midelfort in its journey toward clinical excellence during a presentation at the WCHQ Assembly Meeting on July 13, 2010.