Minnesota Healthcare      Quality Professionals

Return to Newsletters Table of Contents BETWEEN THE LINES: Message From the President By Nancy Jaeckels The NAHQ conference was held in Reno, Nevada this year from September 8th-10th. It was a wonderful trip and a conference filled with knowledgeable presenters. There was a wealth of sharing and camaraderie among colleagues. It was unfortunate that it had to end on a tragic note with the terrorist strikes on the U.S. All of the conference participants were stranded in Reno, away from family and loved ones. However, the NAHQ organization did a fantastic job of working with the hotel, attempting to get rental cars and so forth in order to lessen the chaos we could have easily "slipped into". NAHQ truly is a quality organization that puts on a great national conference each year, and "steps up to the plate" when needed by the members. As part of leadership council, I attended the annual Board meeting on Saturday, September 8th. Over the past 3 years, NAHQ has been consciously aware of a steady decline in their membership. They began statewide membership drives and this year, in 2001, they reported to have maintained a consistent membership. This has been the first year without a decline since 1997. The plan is to continue with member focus groups and ideas and offerings to benefit members. The Board reported on the CPHQ certification testing. They are at the point of rolling the computerized testing, probably for the 2002 exam. They are finding a higher number of re-certifications and a lower number of new exams taken. This could be contributed to a majority of quality professionals already certified and a critical mass of participants certified have been reached. Nonetheless, they are continuing to improve the testing process. They have also expanded to international testing which has been growing rapidly in popularity. A repeat of the employer survey for recognition and value of an employee with the CPHQ certification has been completed. It was reported that 70% of employers say they value the fact that their employees are certified. The conference began on September 9th. The two days of learning sessions focused on multiple areas such as: patient safety and medical error reduction, JCAHO regulations in the area of safety, implementing rapid improvement models, as well as new ideas and methods in risk management and case management. On the last day, Paul Plsek led us through chaos and motivated us to continue our hard work down our path to high quality and safety in health care. MHQP is aligned with and supports the NAHQ vision, and will continue working toward bringing education and resources to its members throughout Minnesota. Thank you for your continued support, Nancy Jaeckels, President Nancy Jaeckels 952-814-7070 Nancy.Jaeckels@icsi.org Quality Line and Between the Lines are designed to provide members information on vital issues in Minnesota healthcare, trends, CQI methodologies, legislation and news about our organization. Published quarterly in Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter. Editors: Penny Carson Marcy Otypka Rita Petty Manninen Joan Sortenberg