The AHA recently released the Allied Hospital Association Leadership for Quality – 2011, a guide that describes the common elements for implementing successful performance improvement initiatives among hospitals and health systems.  According to the guide, one of the key elements to a successful initaitive is Leadership Engagement. 

The guide sites two examples:

The Washington State Hospital Association (WSHA) conducts an annual CEO and Trustee Patient Safety Summit. During this meeting, board members are able to learn about board leadership in patient safety from national experts. They discuss how to ask questions about sometimes complex clinical reports to advance quality in their hospitals. Engaging hospital leaders has resulted in a significant shift in the way hospital boards operate, which WSHA has monitored for four consecutive years through a survey.

As another example, the South Carolina Hospital Association (SCHA) created Best on Boards, a voluntary, evidence-based board certification program for hospital trustees and senior hospital leaders. The program has been designed around the governance core competencies identified and published in the AHA’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Health Care Governance report.

According to the guide, “Many allied hospital associations understand that organizational change needs senior-level leadership support to be successful, and they have developed educational programs and tools to ensure this commitment.”