An invitational workshop on collaboration between quality improvement organizations and business coalitions

The center for Clinical Quality Evaluation, in conjunction with The American Health Quality Association, Midwest Business Group on Health, National Business Coalition on Health, and the funder, the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, conducted an invitational workshop January 14-15, 1997, in Washington, DC. A select group of federally designated peer review/quality improvement organizations (QIOs)--organizations that work at the local level to improve and promote the health status of Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries--and business coalitions from nine states met to discuss public/private collaboration on community-based quality improvement projects.

The 1 1/2-day sessions included a keynote address by Chris Queram, MA, chief executive officer of the Employer Health Care Alliance, Madison, Wisconsin, who provided background and context on the principles of community-based collaboration; a presentation on an advanced QIO/business coalition collaborative case study by HealthInsight, Inc (the Utah QIO), and Business/Health Partnership (the Salt Lake City business coalition); a case study on a beginning QIO/business coalition collaborated by the Health Accountability Foundation, a partnership between IPRO (the New York State QIO) and the New York Business Group on Health (the New York City business coalition); small group breakout sessions, where participants from each state/local community and Washington, DC-based health associations and specialty societies met to identify common goals and opportunities to collaborate; report on the progress made by each small group; and discuss future plans for collaborating on quality improvement projects.

Many of the participating QIOs and business coalitions have already begun collaborating on quality improvement projects.