Campuses are buzzing, commutes are grinding, and colors are appearing on leaves overhead. Yes, fall is officially here at our home office in Cambridge, MA. Wherever you are, we invite you to pull up a seat, grab some hot cider and a scone, and check out IHI’s top six picks from September 2016.

Here’s what you might have missed:

• Restoring Joy in Work in the Healthcare Workforce: While burnout in the health professions is alarmingly high, restoring joy in work is more than just reducing burnout. So, what can leaders do to counteract this epidemic? This Healthcare Executive article, penned by IHI President and CEO Derek Feeley and the Mayo Clinic’s Steve Swenson, describes four key steps that leaders can take to restore, foster, and nurture joy in the health care workforce. More than 7,000 readers have accessed the article.
  
• WIHI: How Health Care Can Accelerate Health Equity. What might be possible if health care organizations across the US made a commitment to work to achieve health equity in their communities in dramatically new ways? The hour-long WIHI explored this question, looking at self-assessments, implicit bias, and how health care organizations can tackle equity further upstream. Check out the podcast and a short video clip here.
  
• Priority Matrix: An Overlooked Gardening Tool. IHI’s Don Goldmann is a well-known physician, educator, and … gardener? In this short video, Goldmann invites us into his home garden and uses a priority matrix — a useful tool in any improvement work — to determine which types of kale he plans to grow next year. Yes, kale. Enjoy!
  
• PFC 101: Introduction to Patient-Centered Care. We mentioned last month that we’ve created a trio of new Open School courses, switched to a new platform, and updated the curriculum with a shorter Basic Certificate in Quality and Safety. We hope you’ve had a chance to explore the changes. If you’re looking for a place to start, our new course about patient-provider partnerships is a great choice. It’s filled with compelling video narratives and practical strategies to improve the patient-provider relationship.
  
• So-Called Flow Failures Are Disrespectful to Patients. The month’s most popular blog post (more than 5,500 page views) came from IHI President Emerita and Senior Fellow Maureen Bisognano. “Flow isour problem,” Bisognano writes. “It shouldn’t be the problem of our patients. Effective flow of patients and information throughout health care systems is essential to providing safe, high-quality, and person- and family-centered care. We must use quality improvement and redesign principles to revamp how patients move through our health care settings.”
  
• Box Scores: Not Just for Baseball Anymore. A box score? In health care? Clinical leaders need to understand and use both clinical and financial data to be true champions of quality and patient safety. Lean Accounting (and Box Scores) can help. “The Box Score,” author and research associate at IHI Jeff Rakover writes, “serves as the anchor for continuous value management.” Read more on IHI’s blog.