Bisognano M. Nursing's role in transforming healthcare. Healthcare Executive. 2010 Mar/Apr;25(2):84-87.

Nurses are crucial to closing the gaps in quality and safety that too often exists in patient care. At the same time, the nursing profession faces significant challenges such as shortages and increased demands on nurses' time. This article offers six recommendations to improve health care quality and safety through the framework of nursing.

Swensen SJ, Meyer GS, Nelson EC, Hunt GC Jr, Pryor DB, Weissberg JI, Kaplan GS, Daley J, Yates GR, Chassin MR, James BC, Berwick DM. Cottage industry to postindustrial care: The revolution in health care delivery. New England Journal of Medicine. 2010 Jan 20. [Epub ahead of print]

The authors state that the current US health care system is essentially a cottage industry of nonintegrated, dedicated artisans who eschew standardization. Services are often highly variable, performance is largely unmeasured, care is customized to individual patients, and standardized processes are regarded skeptically. Growing evidence, however, highlights the dangers of continuing to operate in cottage-industry mode.

Roadmap to Cost Containment: The Massachusetts Health Care Quality and Cost Council Final Report. Boston: Massachusetts Health Care Quality and Cost Council; October 2009.

The Health Care Quality and Cost Council, a public entity responsible for setting quality and cost targets for the Massachusetts, issued this report that outlines 11 key strategies. The Roadmap states that all stakeholders must enact policies and changes to create a health care system that supports redesign and population health management in order to be successful and have the maximum impact on cost and quality.

Davidoff F. Quality: Where it came from and why it matters. In: Crowley M (ed.). Connecting American Values with Health Reform. The Hastings Center Report. 2009;Suppl:21-23.

Improving the quality of health care is likely to be crucial in the success of health care reform. This essay, part of a larger Hastings Center report, explores the seemingly unlikely proposition that commercial values have also served as the principal catalyst for the quality movement in medicine when they have come up against the decidedly noncommercial values that medicine has held sacrosanct.

Federico F, Bonacum D. Strengthening the core: Middle managers play a vital role in improving safety. Healthcare Executive. 2010 Jan/Feb;25(1):68-70.

Because they are not in senior leadership positions or at the front lines of patient care, middle managers act as a crucial bridge between the two. This article describes the core skills that middle managers need to be successful in leading improvement efforts at the microsystem level, and what senior leaders must do to provide the necessary training and support structures within the organization.

Robson B, Hamnett P. Changing systems, changing minds: Improving health care with IT. Healthcare Executive. 2009 Nov/Dec;24(6):72-74.

Is your organization embracing health information technology (HIT) as a driver of improvement? This article describes the role of health care leaders in supporting the use of HIT to improve the care system, and suggests a collaborative approach for bringing the worlds of HIT and improvement together to identify, share and spread best practices.

Bisognano M. Engaging the CFO in quality: Why it's a must and how to make it happen. Healthcare Executive. 2009 Sept/Oct;24(5):76-78.

The most effective organizations, in terms of both quality and financial results, are led by senior teams who understand the linkages between cost and quality, and they manage both as integrated goals. This article discusses the critical role of the hospital chief financial officer in safety and quality improvement efforts, and provides best practices and examples of health systems who are already demonstrating this type of leadership.

Reinertsen JL, Conway J, Orlikoff JE. Safety in a recession? Trustee. 2009 Jun;62(6):28-29.

In the current US economic climate, both patients and hospitals alike are looking for ways to reduce costs, including cutting staff expenses and reducing or eliminating services. So, will the substantial improvements in safety over the last five to seven years become a casualty of the recession? The authors have suggestions for how boards can make sure their hospitals don’t backslide on safety during these challenging times.

Adams KT. Rethinking comparative effectiveness research: An interview with Dr. Donald Berwick. Biotechnology Healthcare. 2009 Jun:35-38.

Opponents to the new comparative effectiveness research (CER) legislation in the US are warning about a one-size-fits-all treatment approach and rationing of health care. In this interview, IHI's Don Berwick talks about the value of CER in helping doctors avoid ineffective or more costly approaches that might not work, and whether CER will help control health care costs in the US.

Kabcenell A, Gunther-Murphy C. IHI's Improvement Map: A new concept to help hospitals achieve better patient outcomes. Healthcare Executive. 2009 Jul/Aug;24(4):60-63.

What if hospital leaders had a streamlined way to chart an improvement path for their organizations, as well as a list of key processes that could, if implemented reliably, lower mortality, reduce harm, lessen delays, create a better patient experience and lower costs? This article describes the IHI Improvement Map — an interactive tool that offers hospitals the best knowledge available on processes that lead to excellent patient care, and a way for them to design a customized path to achieve meaningful results.