Leadership Assessment Tool to Help Improve Quality of Care in Hospitals
November 18, 2008
West Des Moines, Iowa - The University of Iowa Department of Health Management and Policy (HMP), recently approved a sub-contract to the Iowa Foundation for Medical Care (IFMC), to support a Commonwealth Fund Study, entitled, “Improving Hospital Quality Through Leadership Assessment and Intervention”. The study will evaluate the effectiveness of the Hospital Leadership and Quality Assessment Tool (HLQAT), a new instrument that assesses the contributions of hospital leaders in improving quality of care.
The HLQAT will collect information on the performance of hospital governing boards, senior executives and clinical leaders. The information from these surveys will be used by Medicare Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs) and other national organizations to develop and implement consultation services for enhancing leadership practices at participating hospitals. An evaluation will determine whether hospitals who used the HLQAT improved their performance on the leadership assessment as well as on quality-of-care measures.
IFMC is providing management support and specific technical expertise to the HMP’s Center for Health Policy and Research. Key project personnel include: Barry Greene, PhD, Tom Vaughn, PhD, Samuel Levey, PhD from HMP, and Mark Koepke, JD, MHA, and Angela Plusquellic, MBA, from IFMC.
“The HLQAT is unique in that it has been developed by a public-private partnership, taking advantage of key local and national stakeholders, including academicians, real world hospital leaders, public policymakers and other industry representatives in a true spirit of cooperation. Because of this unique partnership, the resulting product possesses the attributes of an instrument that can truly facilitate greater quality at any hospital that chooses to take advantage of the publicly available tool,” says Jim Conway, MS, senior vice president, Institute for Healthcare Improvement.
“Hospitals have a great opportunity to use the HLQAT in an applied setting in their own community and environment. The organizational constructs provide a structured framework to support meaningful leadership conversations among management, governance and physician leadership. Any hospital may use the instrument to gauge its readiness and to chart its progress over time,” says Stephen Mayfield, MBA, MBB, senior vice president for quality and performance improvement, The American Hospital Association.
For additional information on this project, please contact Mark Koepke, special projects director, IFMC, (443) 561-3324 or mkoepke@ifmc.org
For more than 35 years, IFMC and ENCOMPASS Health Management Systems have been dedicated to the delivery of innovative health management solutions. A full range of flexible and customized information, quality and care management services enables IFMC/ENCOMPASS to address all aspects of health care needs.