Diabetes Care Quality Improvement: A Workbook for State Action

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Module 6: The Way Forward— Promoting Quality Improvement in the States

Learning Objective

Upon completion of Module 6, the user(s) will be able to:

Identify what the user(s) can uniquely contribute to promote quality improvement in health care and where help is needed.

1. Identify what the user(s) can uniquely contribute to promote quality improvement in health care and where help is needed.

Read Module 6 of the Resource Guide. Note areas where you have particular strengths and resources to contribute. Note dimensions where your skills and those of your staff may be weakest. Devise approaches (e.g., input from other agencies, new hires, grant applications, etc.) to strengthen the weakest areas. Some of these areas are:

a. Providing leadership and vision

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b. Forming partnerships and collaborations

c. Assisting planning and goal setting

d. Initiating measurement and reporting

e. Including evaluation and accountability

f. Enhancing infrastructure

g. Creating incentives

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A Final Note

Now that you have answered the questions in this Workbook and assessed your strengths and weakness for leading a quality improvement initiative, you are ready to take action. The goal of changing health care quality in your State may seem overwhelming. Yet, with small, smart steps, you can be effective in making that happen.

Assemble your staff or your network of State leaders and discuss the idea. You may want them to do the exercises in this Workbook, read the Resource Guide, and prepare some ideas for a preliminary plan even before you meet. The most important first step will be identifying and recruiting public and private partners for health care quality improvement—other State agencies, purchasers, provider groups, consumers, and experts who fill in the gaps in your knowledge. Find out who the change agents for health care quality are in your community.

Remember, without involving the professionals at the forefront of health care, there can be no quality enhancement. As we have noted in throughout this Workbook as well as in the Resource Guide, the full stakeholder group should be involved in designing the goals, the approach, the details of implementation, and the evaluation strategy. Only with an effective team of leaders, champions, and change agents for improving health care quality will the health care system in your State be able to change and provide better care for your community.

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Current as of August 2008
AHRQ Publication No. 04-0073

Internet Citation:

Diabetes Care Quality Improvement: A Workbook for State Action. September 2004, AHRQ Publication No. 04-0073. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/diabqual/diabqwork.htm