Executive roundtable II. Talking about quality

In the last issue of Healthcare Executive, we introduced the first in a two-part series on quality in healthcare. The series, which is predicated on a five-hour roundtable discussion among eight healthcare leaders, was moderated by Thomas C. Dolan, Ph.D., FACHE, CAE, ACHE's president and chief executive officer, and jointly sponsored by ACHE and the Bayer Quality Network, an educational forum for sharing innovative and effective continuous quality improvement methods with healthcare executives. In Part I, participants spoke about current issues as they relate to quality. They discussed the reliability of existing quality data and expressed a need for more practical indicators and measurement systems. The consumer mindset was discussed, as leaders debated the value of customer satisfaction surveys and ways to create more realistic consumer expectations. In terms of employers and third parties, participants suggested tailoring quality information and presenting it in a simplified fashion. Finally, leaders emphasized the need for better performance information, as well as the use of outcomes data for both educational and quality improvement purposes. In Part II, the dialogue remains compelling. Participants cover new ground as they talk about the role of accreditors in regulating quality, of governance teams and senior management in creating an organizational culture to support quality, and of physicians in attracting both business partners and patients based on quality. Following is the second in our two-part series.