CAMBRIDGE, Mass. & ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), a leading innovator in health and health care improvement worldwide, kicked off its 25th Annual National Forum on Quality Improvement in Health Care in Orlando, FL, taking place through December 11, 2013. More than 5,000 health care professionals from around the world have gathered to celebrate their collective progress over the past 25 years and to launch the next era of health care quality improvement at a time of significant need and opportunity for transformation.
While much attention has been focused on the difficulties with the ACA rollout, health care in the US also faces an unprecedented opportunity to welcome millions of newly insured into a system that can be better for patients, better for communities, and more affordable. Many organizations have begun this journey, but many more are seeking guidance on how to transform their delivery and business models while simultaneously delivering the safest and highest-quality care possible. This challenge is a global one, irrespective of how health care is organized and financed.
To meet these challenges, IHI will leverage its existing network of colleagues around the world and create new partnerships that will impact both the health care of individuals and the health of populations. With this vibrant network, IHI is able to identify the best innovations in health and health care and make them more widely available to patients, families, and communities. During the Forum, participants will hear about world-leading results in improving patient safety and quality of care, and the growing role that patients and families are playing to make care more convenient, collaborative, and effective.
At this morning’s keynote address, IHI President and CEO Maureen Bisognano called upon the quality improvement community to “flip health care,” moving from a system that does things TO patients to one that works WITH patients to achieve the best results.
“In the face of necessary, but often disorienting, structural changes in health care today, we at IHI are focusing on the equally necessary global evolution that’s underway to ensure patients experience better care and lead healthier lives,” stated Bisognano. “The goal is to make the existing innovations and models better known to all who are trying to improve care, and also applicable to whole populations, on a much wider scale. Now, more than ever, we intend to help our customers build bridges to the health care systems and the healthier communities of the future.”
Media Availability
From 12 noon to 1 pm ET on Tuesday, December 10, 2013, Maureen Bisognano and IHI EVP Derek Feeley will provide further information on the organization’s outlook for the future of health care quality improvement, how we can together “flip health care,” and current improvement bright spots across the world. They will host a Q&A with journalists on-site at the Forum, and remote media contacts are encouraged to join by dialing 1-866-469-3239 and entering the passcode: 21735679.
About The Institute for Healthcare Improvement
IHI is a leading innovator in health and health care improvement worldwide. For more than 25 years, we have partnered with an ever-growing community of visionaries, leaders, and front-line practitioners around the globe to spark bold, inventive ways to improve the health of individuals and populations. Together, we build the will for change, seek out innovative models of care, and spread proven best practices. When it comes to raising the quality of health for all, IHI sees boundless possibilities and while we see the walls in front of us, we will not rest until we reach the other side. Learn more at ihi.org.
