Dear AzAHQ Members,
In 2026 AzAHQ is continuing our quality journey in support of our vision to be recognized by the Arizona healthcare community as a leader in advancing healthcare quality and our mission to serve as a resource to advance healthcare quality within Arizona through leadership, education, and communication. We are working on our multi-year strategic plan with improved financial forecasting and budgeting to help us continue to reshape our priorities to develop programs and opportunities better serving our members’ quality journeys.
Our goal is to provide education and networking for not only healthcare quality professionals, but also to anybody in healthcare who is interested in quality. The performance improvement aspect of quality provides an opportunity for anybody in healthcare to make things better by making improvements, and AzAHQ can help you make that happen by providing education, networking, and resources. For example, AzAHQ can help you use the PDSA cycle and lean thinking to eliminate waste, streamline operations, and improve daily work resulting in improvement in both staff and patient satisfaction. We will be promoting networking opportunities to help organizations share quality initiatives for improvement.
One of our goals is to increase our membership. We have an exciting membership drive contest this year. From now until March 31, 2026, the active member who refers the most new paid members will receive a single-user, single-computer download of a QI Macros Starter Kit. This is a $435 value. I use QI Macros and highly recommend this software to help you make charts to show process improvement, including Pareto charts and control charts, as well as others. We also have a member-get-a-member discount. Refer a new member and receive a 5% discount on your annual membership renewal. There is now a two-year membership option. You can renew AzAHQ membership for one year for $55 or for two years for $100. We offer a 50% discount for students. New this year is organizational membership that includes complimentary memberships and discounts. Check to see if this would be beneficial for your organization.
AzAHQ continues to offer resources to help you with your quality journey including continuing our partnership with other state healthcare quality associations in offering webinars that are free to active members of participating associations. AzAHQ is actively planning webinars and other educational opportunities to help you on your quality journey. AzAHQ will present a virtual spring conference on April 30 and a hybrid conference in the fall on November 6. With our long tradition of supporting healthcare quality professionals who hold or aspire to hold the Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ®) credential, we will be offering the Quality Journey education program, a 12-hour virtual offering in the spring and fall covering information on topics in the CPHQ® content outline. We also provide a grant for those pursuing CPHQ® certification. The webinars and educational conferences support quality professionals not only by providing education and networking opportunities but also by providing continuing education credits for quality professionals who hold the CPHQ® credential.
Would you be interested in joining the AzAHQ Board of Directors in the future to help promote healthcare quality? Board members receive complimentary registration for both annual conferences, have great networking opportunities, and get to experience professional growth by collaborating with healthcare quality professionals seeking to improve quality in Arizona. If you think you might like to get involved, but aren’t sure if you want to fill a board/associate position, we invite you to get to know us by shadowing a board member. You could observe a virtual board meeting, observe planning for a webinar or a conference, observe the making of the newsletter, or observe planning a member survey. Please share this information with your healthcare colleagues and plan to bring a friend to join us for a shadow experience! Send an email if you are interested, or know someone who might be interested, or if you have ideas for AzAHQ for the coming year to AzAHQ’s Association Manager, Holly Grems at HollyG@azahq.org.
Please plan to join us on this quality journey and bring a healthcare quality colleague with you! Thank you for all you do to promote healthcare quality every day. If you have ideas or want to contribute to AzAHQ, please contact me at NancyC@azahq.org.
Nancy Claflin, DNP MS RN NEA-BC CENP CNEcl CCRN CPHQ FNAHQ
AzAHQ President 2024 - 2026

1/1/26
