Welcome to the Arizona
Association for Healthcare Quality! AzAHQ has
some great things in store for 2008! The newly
elected AzAHQ Board of Directors began their
journey in January of this year by finalizing
the strategic goals of the organization. The
2008 AzAHQ Strategic Plan includes the following:
- Provide leadership and support for education,
networking and career-enhancement opportunities
that will attract and retain AzAHQ members.
AzAHQ has planned three excellent educational
conferences for the year. The first is
scheduled for April 18th entitled” Risky Business of Quality”.
At this conference, there will also be a general membership meeting. For
details, please refer to www.azahq.org.
The next two conferences will be held June
20th (1/2 day) and November
14th (full day conference with general membership
meeting). Topics for the latter two conferences
are in the planning phase. Refer to the
AzAHQ website for updates.
In addition to the educational conferences, the communication team does an
outstanding job of producing 3 newsletters each year. Look for the next newsletter
in April
2008.
- Ensure that AzAHQ can meet current
and future financial obligations.
AzAHQ is a fiscally sound organization
thanks to the support of our membership.
In honor of our members, AzAHQ will be sponsoring one free admission
to the annual NAHQ conference to be held
Sept. 14 - 17 at the JW Marriott Desert
Ridge
Resort
in Phoenix.
- Increase member awareness of NAHQ
activities and direction.
As president, I participate in the in the
quarterly NAHQ President’s call.
A summary of these calls is sent to the Board members. In addition, the NAHQ
President’s message is sent out to the AzAHQ list serve.
As mentioned previously, the annual NAHQ conference will be held Sept.
14 - 17th at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort in Phoenix. AzAHQ
members are encouraged
to attend.
- Ensure steady leadership of AzAHQ
and seamless transition from year to
year.
I am pleased to introduce the 2008
AzAHQ Board of Directors:
• Nancy Claflin, as past president, did a tremendous job with recruiting
an energetic and robust Board of Directors who include:
•
Myrna Feldman, past treasurer, now President – Elect
•
Kim Elliott – Secretary
• Kathy Ostapuk - Treasurer
•
Carolyn Marquart – Treasurer – Elect
•
Kim Duncan – Communications Team Leader – Elect
•
Brenda Condrick – Communications Team Leader – Elect
•
Jessica Hackwell – Education Team Leader
•
Darlene Ceccarelli – Education Team Leader – Elect
•
Kristin Frounfelker – Membership Team Leader
•
Karen Richards – Membership Team Leader – Elect
•
Jennifer Wolfe-Pearce – Member-at-Large
I recently had the privilege of attending
the Advanced Training Program at Intermountain
Healthcare’s Institute for Health
Care Delivery Research. The purpose of the training was to
conduct state-of-the-art clinical
practice improvement projects,
use quality improvement methods to manage and integrate non-clinical
processes, implement quality improvement programs and conduct
internal quality improvement
training. It was an intense program that provided insight to
key quality concepts and a chance to network with individuals
from
around the nation,
Canada and Europe. One of my favorite quotes from the program
was provided by Dr. Brent James, executive
director of Intermountain Institute, “Quality
is a race without a finish line”. I challenge
you to join the race and pursue excellence
in healthcare quality. With such a strong emphasis
on quality outcomes, evidenced-based medicine,
public reporting, patient safety initiatives,
pay-for-performance and transparency, quality
is clearly the focus of today and the future.
If you are not a member of AzAHQ, join now
and become a front runner!
Sincerely,
Jeanne Stueland
Jeanne Stueland RN, MPA, CPHQ
AzAHQ President
jstueland@shc.org
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