Training

Leading Quality Improvement: Essentials for Managers

Format:

Online

Start Date:

Aug 28, 2025

Sep 11, 2025

Duration:

16 Weeks

Fee:

$995*

Groups of 3 or more:

$846*

Download the program brochure

Don't miss out! Join our exclusive Informational Call with faculty on Thursday, July 24th, 2025, at 11:00 AM ET. Gain valuable insights and register now to secure your spot.

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*Prices are listed in USD. Group prices are listed as per-person.

In successful health care systems, managers play a vital role in meeting their organizations’ key strategic and improvement goals. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement's (IHI's) Leading Quality Improvement: Essentials for Managers uses innovative teaching methods to enhance engagement and deepen understanding of quality improvement to improve organizational efficiency.

Join our exclusive Informational Call with faculty on Thursday, July 24th, 2025, at 11:00 AM ET. Register now

Turn High-Level Objectives Into Action

As the bridge between senior leadership and the front lines, it is a manager’s job to turn high-level objectives into action at the department or unit level. Far too often, managers are not equipped or supported with the right skills, resources, or guidance to achieve their aims.

This program begins by guiding experienced managers through assessing their own leadership and work styles. It continues by building quality planning skills to identify, align, and prioritize improvement opportunities within a unit or care team through leveraging both qualitative and quantitative data. Participants will also learn basic quality improvement and quality control tools and methods, as well as strategies to engage front-line staff in each of these phases of the improvement journey.

What You'll Learn

After completing this online course, you will be able to:

Describe the skills, tools, and resources needed for mid-level managers to effectively lead quality improvement efforts at the local level.
Demonstrate how to link department-level improvement activities to the organization’s goals and overall strategic plan.
Apply approaches to quality planning, quality control, and quality improvement that can be used by mid-level managers to successfully partner with front-line staff and key stakeholders.

Throughout this virtual program, experts with a wealth of experience in improvement science, measurement, modeling, coaching, innovation, and making the business case for improvement will facilitate discussion about the key takeaways from the cases while teaching the skills managers need to excel in their jobs.

Who Should Attend

This program is for anyone who has direct reports and manages an organization's strategic goals at the microsystem or unit level, including:

Nurses
Physicians
Directors
Managers (Especially Risk, Quality, and/or Safety Managers)
Supervisors
Department heads
Health care administrators

Participants from any discipline — including leaders who work in health care and clinical settings, academia, industry, health care insurance, and other settings — are welcome to participate. This program is also particularly beneficial for those transitioning or desiring to transition from a clinical to a leadership role.

Session Faculty

Jesse McCall, MBA, Senior Director and Improvement Advisor, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), coaches individuals and organizations through the process of improvement which includes the data-driven identification of strategic improvement priorities, development of operational systems to support improvement, and the building of practical improvement capability necessary for staff to get results that matter. Jesse also has extensive experience in coaching organizations to engage clinical staff to reduce burnout and foster joy in work. He joined IHI in 2007 and over his tenure has designed, executed, and evaluated programs and projects around the world. He is also a Teaching Fellow at The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Jesse has expertise in practical application of the science of improvement, staff engagement and wellness, program and product development, marketing and communications, customer relationship management, and large-scale initiative operations. He received his undergraduate degree in Business Administration from Northeastern University in Boston and MBA from the UMASS Amherst Isenberg School of Management.

Marianne Smith, MAS-PSHQ, BSN, RN, CPPS, Project Director, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), joined IHI in 2023 with over 25 years of health care experience in emergency nursing, patient experience, and patient safety. She is dedicated to integrating the tenets of high reliability and human factors engineering in her work to transform and ensure safe, high-quality, and equitable care in diverse environments. Marianne worked extensively as a travel RN across the US, relocating to Australia as an advanced practice and trauma RN in the Sydney Southwest Area Health System. Returning to the US, she devoted nearly a decade to UW Medicine Valley Medical Center in Seattle, where she led improvement initiatives in patient experience, developed novel processes to manage COVID assessment and tracking, and managed operations for the organization’s TeamSTEPPS program, in addition to facilitating root cause analyses and improvement projects to address serious patient safety events. In addition to her Certified Professional in Patient Safety credential, Marianne received her BSN from the University of Michigan School of Nursing and her MAS in Patient Safety and Healthcare Quality from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

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.

Making the Case: Download the Justification Letter to provide high-level information on the Leading Quality Improvement: Essentials for Managers program to your leadership.

Session Agenda

The program consists of 8 online lessons and 8 live hour-long webinars. The agenda for the August 2025 offering is available to download:

IHI Leading Quality Improvement August 2025 High-Level 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.

A growing list of countries accept ACCME-accredited education. 

Upon completion of this program, you will be able to:

Define Whole System Quality and the leadership principles required to support it.
Explain the utility of improvement science for health care managers.
Compare the culture in your local area of work to recommendations for a culture of safety.
Apply strategies to assist in learning about and understanding what really matters to patients and support networks, the local community, and the health care force.

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 (but not limited to) meals, breaks and receptions.

Planning Committee

Jesse McCall, MBA, Senior Director, IHI
Marianne Smith, RN, Director, IHI
Pierre Barker, MD, Chief Scientific Officer, IHI
Francessca Keeling, Associate Program Manager, IHI
Brandon Aquino, Marketing Coordinator, IHI

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.

Fees & Scholarships

Registration Rates

Includes 8 online lessons and 8 live hour-long webinars to reinforce, discuss, and apply content covered during the online lessons. Prices are listed in USD.

Regular rate: $995 per person

Groups of 3 or more: $846 per person
Register a group

Scholarships

IHI is pleased to offer a limited number of 25% and 100% 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

To apply for a scholarship, please complete the online Scholarship Application by August 8, 2025. IHI will not consider applications submitted after this date. Scholarship decisions will be announced by August 15, 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.   

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

Please note, scholarships are available for program registration costs only, and do not cover travel, food, or accommodation costs associated with attending a program.   

Review IHI Cancellation Policy

Logistics

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Need Help?

Email

info@ihi.org

Armand Njimafo Tiam

General Practitioner, Mboppi Baptist Hospital

"The main thing I've learned from the course is how to make an accurate diagnosis in the system and how to choose an area to start the improvement journey... Every step of the course was important because we were building a house block by block."

Erika Draffin, RN, MSN

Senior Administrator, Vidant Health, Greenville, NC

"We've found the Leading Quality Improvement: Essentials for Managers calls so helpful. They came along at just the right time. We've used the slides and tools shared on the calls. There is so much going on in a middle manager's life and we haven't always done a very good job of preparing them. They tell us 'you need to teach us how to be a manager.' The IHI middle management calls help us do that."

Blanca Cruz Badillo

Healthcare Quality Team Member, Hospital General Dr. Manuel Gea Gonzalez

As a Quality Leader in my current workplace, I found the course to be incredibly valuable. It offered a thorough and practical exploration of quality improvement principles, equipping me with advanced skills in data analysis, process mapping, and root cause analysis. These tools have already proven essential in identifying areas for improvement and implementing effective changes within my organization.

Tapiwa Danda

Senior District Quality Manager

Leading Quality Improvement: Essentials for Managers is a game changer for middle level managers and aspiring Quality Managers!

Insights

Improvement as Empowerment

Insights

Tips for Bringing Trauma-Informed Care into Practice

Insights

“Quality Improvement Is a Team Sport” and Other QI Career Lessons

Leadership Alliance Australia and New Zealand

A Dynamic Collaboration of Regional Health and Health Care Leaders

Health care needs bold, visionary leaders with the courage to imagine, design, and scale new models to achieve outcomes that better meet the needs of those they serve.

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Leadership Alliance Australia and New Zealand (Leadership Alliance ANZ) is a dynamic collaboration of progressive health and health care delivery leaders in the region who are committed to striving together to improve the health of populations, enhance the patient experience, reduce costs, ensure health care worker well-being, and advance health equity.

A true learning and innovation community, the Leadership Alliance ANZ will be united by this common vision to transform health systems, tackle seemingly intractable challenges, and improve health outcomes.

The 2024–2025 IHI Leadership Alliance Australia and New Zealand membership year began in June 2024.

Membership

The IHI Leadership Alliance ANZ will be responsive to member needs and focus on what is most valuable to network members. Participating organisations will guide decisions on membership to ensure alignment with the vision, diversity of organisation types, and numbers of participating members. We will also leverage learning from two highly successful IHI networks, the Leadership Alliance (North America) and the Health Improvement Alliance Europe.

Members of the IHI Leadership Alliance ANZ will:

Work with one another and in partnership with their patients, workforces, and communities to accelerate improvements and effectively respond to shared challenges
Network, share ideas, and learn together via in-person meetings, web-based conferences, and digital exchange
Gain insights on innovative approaches and best practices to facilitate the rapid spread of impactful improvements to address the evolving needs of their communities

Who Should Join

Prospective members of the IHI Leadership Alliance ANZ include leaders in a range of senior roles:

Board members and non-executive leaders
Chief executives
Senior executives
Emerging senior leaders with specific responsibility for quality, safety, improvement, and innovation

Leadership Alliance ANZ Benefits and Fees

Membership Benefits

The IHI Leadership Alliance ANZ provides leaders in your organisation with the platform to:

Collaborate in a dynamic and courageous network of invited leaders from health care organisations across Australia and New Zealand
Share assets, innovations, and strategies across organisational, regional, national, and international boundaries
Gain insights and ideas to support your organisation to deliver improved health and health care for patients, communities, and populations
Build connections and strengthen your networks, including with leading local and international thinkers and provocateurs
Leverage opportunities to provide collective voice to shape the future direction of health care in Australia and New Zealand

Enrollment Fees

The 2024–2025 membership year of the IHI Leadership Alliance ANZ begins in June 2024.

Organisational membership is $9,950 AUD / $10,670 NZD per year, which includes up to ten leaders from each member organisation being invited to most of the events.

To learn more about the IHI Leadership Alliance ANZ and to apply for organisational membership in the Alliance, please email apac@ihi.org.

IHI may, in its discretion, cancel, postpone, or otherwise modify this event at any time, with or without notice. If IHI does so and as a result, a registrant is unable to participate in the event, IHI will refund the registration fee. The registrant, however, will remain responsible for other costs (such as travel and lodging) the registrant incurs in connection with the event, and IHI will not refund the registrant, nor otherwise be responsible for, such costs. Registrants should proceed accordingly and consider travel/lodging cancellation policies — as well as purchasing travel insurance — when incurring such costs. IHI asks registrants to take into consideration the currently evolving situation and advisories related to Coronavirus before incurring travel, lodging, and other costs related to this event.

Join the IHI Leadership Alliance Australia and New Zealand

To learn more or to apply for organizational membership in the IHI Leadership Alliance ANZ , please email apac@ihi.org.

Leadership Alliance ANZ Activities

2024–2025 Activities

Alliance members participate in a variety of engagement activities throughout the program year. Learn more in the Leadership Alliance ANZ Prospectus.

The 2024–2025 membership year of the IHI Leadership Alliance begins in June 2024.

Below is a high-level overview of potential Alliance ANZ events in 2024–2025. Members will determine the focus areas and sequencing of events to ensure that their key challenges, opportunities, and priorities are addressed.

Share and Learn

Collaborate

Special Interest Groups: 1 to 3 topic-specific, time-limited virtual working groups that meet at a frequency determined by members

Virtual working groups tackle cross-jurisdictional strategic issues and provide opportunities for action, collective voice, and creating outputs for dissemination (e.g., publications). Potential to also convene peer-to-peer learning and networking sessions for particular roles (e.g., CEO Connections).

Attendees: 1 to 4 per organisation

Create Connections

Virtual and In-Person Meetings: 1 to 3 meetings to strengthen networks with local and global leaders

Connect and share insights with local and global IHI networks. Alliance ANZ members set priorities and have opportunities to participate in bespoke senior leader programming at IHI events, including:

Virtual connections with members of the IHI Leadership Alliance (North America) and IHI Health Improvement Alliance Europe
In-person connections at the:
- Global Health Leaders, Innovators, and Influencers Event, with an option to attend the IHI Latin American Forum on Quality and Safety in Health Care in Brazil on 9–11 July 2024 (complimentary VIP entry)
- IHI/BMJ International Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare in Brisbane on 6–8 November 2024

Members of Leadership Alliance ANZ

Canberra — ACT Health Directorate
New South Wales — Clinical Excellence Commission
Northern Territory — NT Health
Victoria — Safer Care Victoria, with leaders from:
- Alfred Health
- Austin Health
- Monash Health
- Department of Health, Victoria
South Australia — SA Health, with leaders from:
- Southern Adelaide Local Health Network
- Women and Children’s Health Network
- Riverland Mallee Coorong Local Health Network
- Limestone Coast Local Health Network
Tasmania — Tasmanian Department of Health
Queensland — Clinical Excellence Queensland, with leaders from:
- Townsville Hospital and Health Service
- Children’s Health Queensland
- Gold Coast Hospital and Health Services
- Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service
Western Australia — WA Health

Download Leadership Alliance ANZ Prospectus

Download the IHI Leadership Alliance Australia and New Zealand Prospectus to learn more about the Alliance and how your organisation can join this remarkable group of health care innovators.

Download Prospectus

Insights

The Continuous Evolution of Leading Quality Improvement

Publications

Leveraging AI to Support Improvement

Insights

Advancing Health Equity Means “Going Back to Our Humanity”

Chief Quality Officer Network

Read more about Chief Quality Officer Network

Chief Quality Officer Network

A true learning and innovation community, the Chief Quality Officer Network unites around the common vision to transform health systems, tackle seemingly intractable challenges, and measurably improve health outcomes.

Connect and Collaborate with CQOs from Around the World

The IHI Chief Quality Officer (CQO) Network is designed for senior quality and safety executives across health care systems, leveraging more than 30 years of IHI’s trusted leadership in quality improvement. Building on years of success of the Chief Quality Officer Professional Development Program, the CQO Network unites around the common goal of making a profound impact in the core components of high-quality care: safe, effective, efficient, equitable, timely, and patient centered.

The network fosters a global community where quality leaders from diverse settings can forge connections, share insights, and exchange strategies that drive industry transformation.

Network Benefits

Virtual and In-Person Meetings

Monthly virtual programs feature member presentations and expert guest lectures, with additional opportunities for networking at key IHI events, including a dedicated CQO-track at the 2024 IHI Forum and an invitation to the IHI Leadership Alliance Spring Meeting.

Membership for the CQO Network includes admission to IHI’s premier health conference, the IHI Forum*, held annually in December.

*Not included with membership obtained through IHI Networks.

Peer-Led Discussions

CQO Network Community Hub

Continuing Education Opportunities

The Value of Community

Networking and collaboration are central to the CQO Network. Members can engage with peers, access timely case studies, and participate in top-of-mind discussion series. Through these engagements, members support one another as they navigate, contribute to both local and global improvements, and influence health policy.

Member-Driven: Member priorities influence the learning, strategies, and collaborations of our network.
Collective Voice: Leveraging the power of our collective expertise and global IHI Networks, the CQO Network presents opportunities to catalyze the national and global dialogue regarding patient safety and health care quality.

Who Should Participate

The CQO Network is open to active Chief Quality Officers and senior leaders responsible for quality from across IHI’s global community. This includes executives from health care delivery organizations, insurers, regulatory bodies, and associations, all committed to advancing quality transformation.

Membership Dues

Membership for the IHI CQO Network allows you to enjoy all network benefits for one year. Membership dues are automatically renewed one year after your initial enrollment date.

Annual individual membership dues for the CQO Network: $1,550

CQO Network membership dues include admission for each member to the IHI Forum (held annually in December).
Members in IHI Networks, including the Leadership Alliance and Health Improvement Alliance Europe, receive discounted membership for one (1) quality executive in the CQO Network (excluding IHI Forum registration fee).