Institute for Healthcare Improvement: From the Top: The Role of the Board in Quality and Safety

Program Overview

Could your board send a stronger signal to the organization that it is really serious about achieving quality and safety aims?
Is your board overwhelmed by quality data and unable to determine what to do with it?
How can your board more effectively engage with physicians in your quality and safety agenda?
How will your board handle a sentinel event?

To achieve system-level performance improvement, hospitals and systems must have capable, committed leadership in both the executive office and the board room.

Meaningful and sustainable quality improvement cannot occur in any organization without the full support and engagement of the organization’s trustees. Yet, most boards are not comfortable taking responsibility for quality of care. Even those that are focused on quality need practical guidance in how to lead their organizations’ quality agendas.

To help address this need, IHI is pleased to offer From the Top: The Role of the Board in Quality and Safety. Led by national experts in governance and quality, this program will improve the capability of your organization’s board to oversee quality and safety endeavors. Participants will be equipped with the practical tools and skills to take responsibility for the quality performance of the organization.

This program is ideal for forward-thinking organizations that already have quality as a prominent focal point. Ideal participants will have had some initial success building the “will” for change within their system and are now ready for the most effective tools to implement the quality and safety agenda.

Download the program brochure.

What You'll Learn

Who Should Attend

The program will teach practical tools for leading quality and patient safety endeavors in your organization.

Participants will learn how to:

Renew and sustain their boards’ engagement and commitment to quality and safety
Improve their boards’ ability to oversee quality and safety
"Spread" the engagement to all members of the board
Effectively integrate quality into the routine board agenda

Leaders — formal and informal — who are responsible for driving quality and patient safety endeavors, including:

Board Chair and Vice Chair
Chair of Board Quality Committee
Quality Committee members
Chief Executive Officer
Any board member interested in quality improvement
Chief Medical Officer
Chief Nursing Officer
Chief Operating Officer
Chief Quality Officer
Chief Patient Safety Officer
General Counsel

New Areas of Focus

The serious economic environment is forcing urgent questions and concerns for governance and leadership, and we will be addressing them head on in future Boards on Boards material. These questions include:

Can we link the quality, safety, satisfaction, and cost issues into a common strategic and operating plan? If so, where how do we start?
How can I focus to have the largest impact on improving both financial and quality performance? Are there organizations that have really done it? What did they do? How long does it take?
We need to cut budgets significantly now. We know, as trustees and leaders, that we must still keep our eyes on quality and satisfaction to prevent untoward outcomes? How do we do it?

We have also evolved our material to support not just board members, but executive and clinical leaders as well.