Deep Engagements with Global Impact

IHI engages deeply with a select group of organizations worldwide in multi-year, multi-touch Strategic Partnerships designed to drive system-wide transformation. The Strategic Partners share IHI's mission to change the course of health and health care by implementing new strategies and systems that will have a substantial impact for patients and populations across the globe.

IHI provides a wealth of guidance and support to leaders of these large organizations who are facing complex issues around patient safety, quality of care, cost of care, population health, and more. Each Strategic Partnership includes frequent guidance, coaching, testing, and learning from IHI senior leaders and faculty.

A Shared Commitment

IHI's Strategic Partners share the following common characteristics:

• An entity (such as a large health care organization, systems, regions, or countries) that can affect outcomes for many individuals
• A team of leaders committed to change and with the will to transform health care delivery
• A mission that is aligned with IHI's
• An interest in improving the health of populations
• Past experience conducting improvement initiatives
• A desire to test innovative improvements
• A willingness to share results

A History of Success

IHI has a history of Strategic Partnerships that have helped to change the course of health care in meaningful ways. IHI's Strategic Partners provide a wealth of experience in national, regional, state and local levels of care and delivery across four continents. Areas of focus within these partnerships have included:

• Making care safer and more reliable
• Improving health and care for vulnerable populations
• Implementing quality strategies and large system design
• Closing equity gaps
• Addressing behavioral/mental health
• Moving from volume to value

A Comprehensive Collaboration

Strategic Partnerships are in-depth, multi-year engagements, which include ongoing support from senior IHI faculty, improvement experts, and staff. A shared willingness to learn, innovate, and test drives each partnership in four key areas:

1. Strategic Planning, Guidance, and Coaching

IHI and the Strategic Partner will design an engagement aligned with the Partner’s strategy. Over time, IHI will assist the Partner’s leadership team in reflecting on progress to-date and lessons learned, and will suggest modifications to the organization’s strategy and approach in the spirit of continuous improvement.

2. Co-Design and Co-Production

The co-design and co-production portfolio of work includes focused, high-impact results-oriented initiatives, which can range from a single intervention that is spread throughout the organization to a comprehensive “change package,” which implements best practices or innovative ideas across multiple areas. Interventions may focus on enhancing value, improving the health of populations, and delivering safe and effective care. In the spirit of co-design and co-production, these interventions may be introduced in both health care and community settings.

Past engagements have included initiatives to reduce health care associated infections, better coordinate care for older adults with complex needs, and improve value without affecting quality.

3. Building Improvement Capability

IHI will work with the Partner to build improvement capability using a learning system to match system-wide goals. In addition, IHI can help the Partner build capability by engaging staff and leaders in ongoing professional development via IHI’s suite of educational programming. Key content includes, but is not limited to, the Model for Improvement, measurement, reliable design, teamwork, and communications.

IHI Strategic Partners have regular access to IHI faculty — and often end up joining IHI’s faculty themselves, to share acquired knowledge with the broader health care community.

4. Participating in a Learning System with Other Strategic Partners

Each year, IHI and representatives from Strategic Partners convene at Summer and Winter Camps. Here, partners share experiences in innovation, improvement, and collaboration in health care, while also learning from other industries.

Within this learning system, the Strategic Partners build relationships with fellow Partners, who represent some of the most forward-thinking health care organizations in the world. This network, built on transparency and generosity, gives Partners the opportunity to learn from a variety of global health care systems, share ideas, and generate new ways of thinking.