Leadership Alliance Help Health Care Heal Coalition

While it is widely reported that physicians’ mental health is worsening, barriers to seeking mental health care remain unacceptably high.

In the spring and summer of 2021, representatives from the IHI Leadership Alliance collaborated to identify opportunities for collective and longitudinal action to eliminate physician credentialing- and licensing-related impediments to seeking mental health care. The Help Health Care Heal Coalition is a special interest Call to Action initiative hosted by the IHI Leadership Alliance that was created to collaboratively advance this work.

This action-minded Coalition was convened by IHI faculty leader, Dr. Saranya Loehrer, together with industry expert and co-conspirator, Dr. Eileen Barrett. The IHI Leadership Alliance proudly supports and works to advance the group’s impact.

Remove Barriers to Physicians Seeking Mental Health Care

In January 2022, Modern Healthcare published an article, "The connection between credentialing and physician mental health: a call to action," co-authored by Dr. Eileen Barrett, who serves as faculty for the IHI Leadership Alliance. While health care leaders continue to commend the ways in which physicians and the entire health care workforce have compassionately cared for the sick during the COVID-19 pandemic, below are five concrete actions leaders can take today to support physicians as they continue this vital work. Dr. Barrett co-authored an additional article, "Reducing health care barriers for hospitalists," in collaboration with coalition members oultining further action health care leaders can take.

Determine how your organization asks questions related to physician mental health on credentialing applications.
Identify how your state medical board presently asks questions related to physician mental health on licensing applications.
Advocate for the recommended non-stigmatizing questions and supportive language to be used among healthcare organizations, state medical boards and insurers.
Identify and mitigate barriers to physicians seeking mental health care.
Encourage investments in evidence-based research and interventions that promote and protect physician mental health.

Spread This Work in Your Organization

The Help Health Care Heal Coalition has developed slides and talking points that you can use to spread this work in your organization and eliminate barriers to physicians and residents seeking mental health care.

Additional Resources

Leadership Alliance Breaking the Rules for Better Care

Read more about Leadership Alliance Breaking the Rules for Better Care

Leadership Alliance Breaking the Rules for Better Care

“You broke the rules for us, and it made all the difference.”

This statement, made by a family member recalling how a nurse “broke” a hospital rule regarding visitation so that a new mom and her baby were able to visit one another inspired an idea. It got members of the IHI Leadership Alliance thinking: How many rules do we currently have in place that were likely created with the best of intentions but don’t benefit patients, families, or staff?

In February 2023, the IHI Leadership Alliance, IHI Health Improvement Alliance Europe, and global members led the third iteration of the "Breaking the Rules for Better Care" initiative, in which leaders were encouraged to ask their patients and staff a simple question:

“If you could break or change one rule in service of a better care experience for patients or staff, what would it be and why?”

More than 100 organizations participated in the Breaking the Rules for Better Care coalition, and in one week over 600 rules were identified. Executive leaders collaborated to solicit and then take action on the myths, habits, and outdated "rules" that get in the way of the care experience.

We have learned from previous Breaking the Rules offerings, that the question is simple, but it takes courage to ask, planning to prioritize, and a commitment to follow up.

Breaking the Rules for Better Care Resource Guide

Host your own Breaking the Rules for Better Care Week. Use this step-by-step guide to get started with planning and hosting a Breaking the Rules initiative in your own organization.

Download the Breaking the Rules Resource Guide

"Rule Breakers": Share Your Ideas

The IHI team is thrilled that you are taking part in Breaking the Rules for Better Care. We are eager to celebrate your efforts and to learn from your experiences and findings. Please complete a short survey to share any ideas, insights, and data from your local Breaking the Rules activities.

Short Survey: Share Your Breaking the Rules Activities

Additional Resources

Breaking the Rules to Improve Care and Increase Joy in Work and Well-Being
Breaking the Rules for Better Care 2023: Listen to a recording of the January 2023 informational call
IHI Leadership Alliance New Rules for Radical Redesign
10 New Rules to Accelerate Healthcare Redesign
JAMA Viewpoint: Breaking the Rules for Better Care

Leadership Alliance Publications and Resources

Read more about Leadership Alliance Publications and Resources

Leadership Alliance Publications and Resources

Breaking the Rules for Better Care Resource Guide

Learn more about Breaking the Rules for Better Care and download the step-by-step resource guide to plan and host a "Breaking the Rules" initiative in your own organization.

Salve Lucrum: The Existential Threat of Greed in US Health Care

Written by Alliance Senior Advisor, Dr. Don Berwick, this JAMA piece invites discussion and collective actions leaders can take to address the threat of greed in US health care.

American Health Care Is Broken. Major Hospitals Need to Be Part of the Solution.

Written by Alliance Senior Advisor, Dr. Don Berwick, this piece examines the role hospitals need to take to solve the current issues in American health care.

Reducing Mental Health Care Barriers for Hospitalists

Co-authored by Alliance Faculty, Dr. Eileen Barrett, this piece illustrates actions health care organizations can take to reduce mental health care barriers for hospitalists. This piece was a collaboration with members of the Help Health Care Heal Coalition.

Framework for Standardized Data Collection of Workplace Violence Incidents in Health Care

As part of ongoing efforts around health care workforce violence prevention, the IHI Leadership Alliance convened safety leaders and experts from across the health care industry to create a framework for standardized data collection of workforce violence incidents. This publication presents a recommended framework, including critical data elements needed to effectively analyze incidents, enabling health care leaders to better understand the impact of prevention efforts and leverage learning across the industry.

Preventing Verbal and Physical Violence across the Health Care Workforce (Toolkit)

IHI Leadership Alliance members prioritized workforce safety and well-being as an urgent priority, leveraging one of their many workgroups to collectively explore this topic, share relevant best practices, and harvest learnings from one another. During the 2021–2022 Alliance year, the Workforce Safety and Well-Being Workgroup homed in on verbal and physical workplace violence in the pursuit of demonstrating alignment of workforce violence prevention and response efforts with advancing system transformation to improve workforce safety and well-being. This toolkit, informed by Alliance members and supplemented with external industry scanning, is intended to be a starting place for health care organizations on their journey to address workplace violence.

COVID Has Made the Office Visit a Dinosaur

Written by Alliance leaders Drs. Doug Eby and Ed McGookin and IHI Executive Drector Jill Duncan, RN, MPH, this piece examines the fate of visit-based medicine and the innovations to the system brought on by COVID-19.

Under the Cover of COVID-19 News, the Epidemic of Opioid Overdoses Silently Surges

Leadership Alliance Opioid and Substance Use Disorder Workgroup co-leads Mara Laderman, MSPH, Miriam Komaromy, MD; James Moses, MD, MPH; and Mark Jarrett, MD, MBA authored this piece in Becker's Hospital Review highlighting the worsening opioid epidemic, exacerbated by every imaginable challenge brought on by COVID-19.

Alliance Members Endorse Congressional Action to Safeguard Telehealth Services

On July 16, 2020, IHI Leadership Alliance member organizations endorsed a letter requesting Congressional action to safeguard the sustainability of telehealth care services through continued regulatory adjustments, the establishment of quality metrics to ensure high-quality telehealth delivery, and payment changes.

Call for Collaboration: Health Care Leaders to the EHR Community to Fight COVID-19

50 leaders representing a diverse cross-section of the global health care delivery community signed this document.

A Living Wage for Health Care Workers Is Essential to Achieve Health Equity

This opinion and editorial piece co-authored by Alliance member Stephen Mette, MD; and Alliance faculty Saranya Loehrer, MD, was published by Modern Healthcare on January 9, 2020. The piece touches on the IHI Leadership Alliance set of actions that can increase health equity within health systems and communities.

Call to Action: Reduce Waste in the US Health Care System and Return the Cost Savings to Patients and the Economy

The IHI Leadership Alliance believes that eliminating “waste” in health care is essential to providing care at an affordable cost. To that end, the Alliance Waste Workgroup has developed an audacious aim: Systematically and proactively identify and eliminate 50 percent of non-value-added waste in the US health care system by 2025. Chaired by MemorialCare Health System Chief Transformation Officer, Helen Macfie, and Chief Medical Officer, Dr. James Leo, this Alliance workgroup is calling on health systems and providers to commit to a Call to Action to do our part to reduce waste in the US health care system.

Additional resources:

Leadership Alliance Waste Portfolio Overview
“Trillion Dollar Checkbook”: Reduce Waste and Cost in the US Health Care System: An in-depth analysis of significant and in many cases complex opportunities to reduce waste and cost.
Driver Diagram: Systematically and Proactively Identify and Eliminate Non-Value-Added Waste in the US Health Care System by 2025
IHI Leadership Alliance Waste Workgroup Driver Diagram Template

Health Systems Try to Trim Waste to Reduce Health Care Spending

A Modern Healthcare piece featuring Jill Duncan, RN, Alliance workgroup co-chair Helen Macfie, PharmD, and several other Alliance members.

How Three Health Systems Are Tackling Waste

A Modern Healthcare piece highlighting stories from Alliance member organizations Bellin Health, Northwell Health, and Providence.

Leadership Alliance Health Equity Call to Action

A Leadership Alliance steering committee drafted this Health Equity Call to Action to reflect Alliance-wide commitment to advancing health equity. Chaired by Dr. Steppe Mette, Chief Clinical Officer for Alliance member UAMS Medical Center, the Committee challenges Alliance members and health professionals nationwide to endorse this Call to Action on the premise that achieving health equity is essential to achieving the full promise of the Triple Aim.

Leadership Alliance Members and Advisors

Members

Advisors

Donald Berwick, MD, MPP, FRCP, President Emeritus and Senior Fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), is also former Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. A pediatrician by background, Dr. Berwick has served on the faculty of the Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health, and on the staffs of Boston's Children's Hospital Medical Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Brigham and Women's Hospital. He has also served as Vice Chair of the US Preventive Services Task Force, the first "Independent Member" of the American Hospital Association Board of Trustees, and Chair of the National Advisory Council of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. He served two terms on the Institute of Medicine's (IOM's) Governing Council, was a member of the IOM's Global Health Board, and served on President Clinton's Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Healthcare Industry. Recognized as a leading authority on health care quality and improvement, Dr. Berwick has received numerous awards for his contributions. In 2005, he was appointed "Honorary Knight Commander of the British Empire" by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of his work with the British National Health Service. Dr. Berwick is the author or co-author of over 160 scientific articles and six books. He currently serves as Lecturer in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School.

Jill Duncan, RN, MS, MPH, Vice President, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), oversees IHI’s portfolio of global education, professional development, and training as well as IHI’s US-based Strategic Partnerships and a global Partner network. Additionally, she leads IHI’s US-based Leadership Alliance and is accountable to the success of global teams in supporting robust relationship-based networks across IHI communities. Ms. Duncan is an active partner, facilitator, and advisor to large-scale efforts focused on leadership, workforce well-being, clinical quality improvement, and learning networks. Her previous IHI responsibilities include daily operations and strategic planning for the IHI Open School, leadership for a number of results-oriented initiatives, and the design and development of workforce development programming. Ms. Duncan draws from her learning as a Clinical Nurse Specialist, quality leader, nurse educator, and frontline care provider. She received her undergraduate nursing degree from Georgetown University and her Master of Science and Master of Public Health from the University of Illinois Chicago.

Kedar Mate, MD, former President and Chief Executive Officer at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), is a member of the faculty at Weill Cornell Medical College. His scholarly work has focused on health system design, health care quality, strategies for achieving large-scale change, and approaches to improving value. Previously Dr. Mate worked at Partners In Health, the World Health Organization, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and served as IHI’s Chief Innovation and Education Officer. He has published numerous peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and white papers and has received multiple honors, including serving as a Soros Fellow, Fulbright Specialist, Zetema Panelist, and an Aspen Institute Health Innovators Fellow. Dr. Mate graduated from Brown University with a degree in American History and from Harvard Medical School with a medical degree.

Disclaimer: Consistent with the IHI’s policy, faculty for this program are expected to disclose at the beginning of their presentation(s) any economic or other personal interests that create, or may be perceived as creating, a conflict related to the material discussed. The intent of this disclosure is not to prevent a speaker with a significant financial or other relationship from making a presentation, but rather to provide listeners with information on which they can make their own judgments.

Unless otherwise noted below, each presenter provided full disclosure information, does not intend to discuss an unapproved/investigative use of a commercial product/device, and has no significant financial relationship(s) to disclose. If unapproved uses of products are discussed, presenters are expected to disclose this to participants.

Publications

Health Equity: Prioritization, Perception, and Progress

Publications

Improving Workforce Well-Being and Joy in Work: Health System Examples

Publications

100 Million Healthier Lives: Case Studies from Around the Globe

Tools

IHI Trigger Tool for Measuring Adverse Drug Events

Training

IHI Redesigning Event Review with Root Cause Analyses and Actions (RCA2)

Format:

Online

Begins:

Sep 09, 2025

Sep 23, 2025

Duration:

16 Weeks

Fee:

$549

To register a group of 2+, fill out the form above

Want to learn more? Join our informational call on July 22, 2025, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM ET.

Program includes self-paced online content, three live All-Learner Calls, social learning with your peers, and access to one-on-one coaching with expert faculty.

Not receiving IHI emails? Please ask your IT department to add the ihi.org domain to your organization's Safe Senders list.

Learn to improve your event review process with a unique approach — endorsed by leaders in patient safety across the United States and abroad — that expands upon traditional root cause analysis.

Want to learn more? Join our informational call on July 22, 2025, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM ET.

What You Will Learn

During this online course, you will:

Explore the type of culture it takes to support RCA²
Learn to prioritize events for RCA² review
Assemble an effective RCA² team
Explore strategies to engage patients in the RCA² process
Gain tools and techniques for conducting interviews after an adverse event occurs
Use flowcharting after an adverse event to understand what happened and why
Learn to identify actions that will protect patients and staff from future harm
Apply goal-setting and measurement techniques to facilitate sustained improvement
Implement approaches for evaluating the success of RCA²
Explore creative possibilities for future applications of RCA²

Who Should Attend

This online course is open to participants who are interested in applying the RCA² methodology to improve safety and quality in their organization.

Patient safety and quality managers
Risk managers
Senior leaders
Point-of-care staff involved in or new to event review
Anyone involved in developing, facilitating, approving, and/or participating in event review processes within health care organizations
Anyone responsible for organizational outcomes in quality, safety, patient experience, staff satisfaction, and financial results

Faculty

Jessica Behrhorst, MPH, CPPS, CPQH, CPHRM, Quality, Safety and HRO Consultant, Aptive Resources, works in the areas of patient safety, workforce safety, and high reliability. She is faculty for the IHI Patient Safety Executive Development Program and on Redesigning Event Review with Root Cause Analysis and Action (RCA2). Prior to Joining Aptive Resources she served as the Senior Director at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). She has also served as the Assistant Vice President of Quality & Patient Safety at Ochsner Health System where she helped set the strategic priorities in quality and patient safety and oversaw various projects involving patient safety, performance improvement, regulatory readiness, ambulatory nursing, and quality outcomes. She has presented her work on RCA2 and Improving the Culture of Safety at various regional and national meetings. She has also worked on research projects involving reduction in Sepsis mortality and access to healthcare for underserved populations. Jessica received her bachelor’s degree from Tulane University and her Master of Public Health Degree from the Louisiana State University School of Public Health. She is a Certified Professional in Patient Safety (CPPS), a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ) and a Certified Professional in Healthcare Risk Management (CPHRM).

Rollin J. “Terry” Fairbanks MD, MS, CPPS, is Senior Vice President and Chief Quality & Safety Officer at MedStar Health, Executive Director of the MedStar Institute for Quality and Safety, and Professor Of Emergency Medicine at Georgetown University. Dr. Fairbanks started his career as a safety scientist focused on human factors engineering in the transportation industry, and later became a physician. He has become an expert in the application of safety science in health care. In 2010 he founded MedStar Health’s National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare, now one of the largest embedded health care human factors centers in the world. He has authored more than 200 publications and edited a book on health care safety and human factors engineering. He has served in safety advisory roles for several national organizations and for the United States, British, Spanish, and Australian governments, and serves in several national advisory roles in addition to his role as IHI faculty. Dr. Fairbanks is a former paramedic, EMS medical director, and general aviation pilot. He practices emergency medicine at the MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington DC.

Tejal K. Gandhi, MD, MPH, CPPS, is the Chief Safety and Transformation Officer at Press Ganey. In this role, Dr. Gandhi is responsible for advancing the Zero Harm movement, improving patient and workforce safety, and developing innovative health care transformation strategies. Before joining Press Ganey, Dr. Gandhi served as Chief Clinical and Safety Officer at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), where she led IHI programs focusing on improving patient and workforce safety. Prior to this, Dr. Gandhi was President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF) from 2013 until 2017, when NPSF merged with IHI. She has also served as President of the Lucian Leape Institute, a think tank founded by NPSF that now operates within the IHI Safety portfolio and was a board member of the Certification Board for Professionals in Patient Safety which administers the Certified Professional in Patient Safety credential.

Richard D. Guthrie, Jr., MD, CPE, is the System Chief Quality Officer of Ochsner Health. As the Chief Quality Officer, Guthrie oversees the development and implementation of strategies and programs aimed at improving patient safety and quality for the health system. Dr. Guthrie previously served as the Regional Medical Director — Ochsner Medical Center from 1999–2014. As Medical Director, Guthrie oversaw the physician group and was responsible for physician recruitment, clinical program development, and professional affairs. Dr. Guthrie earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of New Orleans, summa cum laude, and graduated from Louisiana State University Medical School, Alpha Omega Alpha, in 1986. Dr. Guthrie received his internal medicine training, including residency and chief residency, at Alton Ochsner Medical Foundation.

Lauge Sokol-Hessner, MD, CPPS, is a practicing clinician, educator, researcher, innovator, and leader in patient safety & quality improvement. He’s an Associate Professor of Medicine and an attending hospitalist at the University of Washington (UW) & Harborview Medical Centers, and a Quality Improvement Mentor at the UW Medicine Center for Scholarship in Patient Care Quality and Safety. As the Associate Director for the UW Collaborative for Accountability and Improvement and a Faculty Coach for the PACT Collaborative, he helps lead national work to sustain and spread more proactive, ethical, person-centered responses after harm events. He has operational quality & safety experience as a former Senior Medical Director of Patient Safety at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. As IHI Faculty, and as a former quality and safety fellowship program director and masters program course director at Harvard Medical School, he's passionate about helping develop the next generation of leaders in quality and safety, and he regularly teaches about patient safety, quality improvement, and leadership. He completed his medical degree and internal medicine residency at the University of Pennsylvania.

Additional Resources

When accidents occur in health care, providers and health systems have an urgent responsibility to respond to prevent future harm.

In this online course, you'll learn to improve your event review process with a unique approach — endorsed by leaders in patient safety across the United States and abroad — that expands upon traditional root cause analysis.

Moving swiftly after a safety incident occurs, you'll learn to establish a small team to conduct interviews, develop a flowchart, and pinpoint vulnerabilities in your system: poor equipment design, inadequate training, or insufficient resources.

Most importantly, by the end of the course, you'll gain tools and strategies to address these vulnerabilities with sustainable actions that really work to prevent future harm. This is the focus of Root Cause Analyses and Actions — or RCA2.

Session Agenda

This program consists of 3 live online sessions and self-paced activities to be completed outside of the live sessions. Self-paced activities between sessions are required and should take no longer than one hour to complete per session.

The agenda for the September 2025 offering is available to download:

Redesigning Event Review with Root Cause Analyses and Actions (RCA2) Agenda

Continuing Education

In support of improving patient care, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the health care team.

Continuing education credits for this program are still being finalized and will be updated shortly.

After attending this course, attendees will be able to:

Define an improved event review process with a unique approach that expands upon traditional root cause analysis.
Identify how to form a multidisciplinary team to collect data and evaluate current state.
Apply evidence-based tools and techniques to address vulnerabilities with sustainable actions to prevent future harm.

Planning Committee

Jessica Behrhorst, MPH, CPPS, CPQH, CPHRM, Quality, Safety and HRO Consultant

Britney Pierre, RN, MAS, BSN, Senior Project Manager, Institute for Healthcare Improvement

Lauge Sokol-Hessner, MD, CPPS, Clinical Associate Professor, Medicine, University of Washington

Disclosure: None of the planners, presenters, or staff for this educational activity have relevant financial relationship(s) to disclose with ineligible companies whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.

CE Instructions

In order to be eligible for a continuing education certificate, attendees must complete the online evaluation within 30 days of the continuing education activity. After this period, you will be unable to receive a certificate.

Continuing education credits will not be awarded for non-educational activities, including (and not limited to) meals, breaks and receptions.

Already attended?

To view continuing education (CE) credits and session materials:

Click on the "My IHI" link on the top of this page
Once you are logged in, click on the "Credits" tab to see CE information.
Click on the "My Participation" tab and then the button that says "My Materials" to see course materials.

Fees & Scholarships

Fee: $549 per person

Includes self-paced online content, three live All-Learner Calls, social learning with your peers, and access to one-on-one coaching with expert faculty.

Scholarships

IHI is pleased to offer a limited number of free and 25% scholarships to assist with program registration costs for those working in:

Independent, United States Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) that are not affiliated with a hospital or health system
Critical Access Hospitals
Independent practices with fewer than 20 physicians
Hospitals with fewer than 50 beds
Members of America's Essential Hospitals
501(c)(3) organization with a defined operating budget of less than $5 million, serving community-based populations
Ministries of Health
Faith-based health institutions
Skilled Nursing Facilities

Scholarship applications are due August 22, 2025. Scholarship decisions will be announced on August 29, 2025.

All Scholarships are reviewed on an individual basis. If multiple individuals from the same organization wish to apply for a scholarship, each individual must submit an application. Group discounts are also available, see information above.

To ensure equal distribution of funds, all scholarships applications are reviewed using the same scoring criteria. All awarded amounts are final.

Review IHI Cancellation Policy

Logistics

Start Today

Click on the Register button to login or create an account.
Visit the IHI Education Platform to view program details and complete your registration for the training.
Invoices can be found and paid through your My Account section.

Maricia Silvera-Batson, RN

Scarborough Health Network

"This course is great for the novice to the expert in regards to RCA knowledge. It can be completed while working a full-time job. The content is very relevant to anyone responsible for conducting RCAs and is jammed packed with exceptional resources and examples."

James Laughton, MD

Hamad Medical Corporation

"Excellent course, as usual, from IHI. The quality of content and learning continues to be inspiring."

Missy Polito

West Virginia University Medicine

"This course was the 'icing on the cake' for me. I have been performing RCAs for over 5 years and was able to relate easily to each of the lessons. These lessons confirmed what I already knew, but also provided additional details and learning to expand upon my knowledge of the RCA process."

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Fierce 50: Health Equity Honorees