Friday, June 17, 2011

More Musings on Quality Partners.

I have been working harder on the concept of Quality Partners and have created a trial definition: 

The network of organizations that develop and promote and provide services and assistance with the goal of supporting an effective laboratory foundation that is conducive of better patient safety and care. 

It is a little long but as a definition I think it is not a bad start. It contains all the key elements. The partners are not laboratories but are organizations intended to work with laboratories. The partners do not create an effective laboratory, but support the efforts of those responsible for creating effectiveness. The partners do not directly improve patient safety and quality of care, but are conducive. Ultimately it is the head of the laboratory that makes the decisions that will make or break laboratory quality, but they must know that they do not have to make those decisions alone and without support.

The definition still has some weak points that need to be addressed. Some of the partners are engaged totally on a voluntary basis, others on a function of administration, and others by virtue of their regulatory or statutory function. And it does not incorporate the most important partner, the PUBLIC as manifested by the MEDIA, the Regulators, the Legislators, and the Litigators.

The same can be said about the Graphic. It is still a work in progress, but worth sharing if others want to get engaged in discussion. (see below).




Tomorrow we begin our POLQM Quality Weekend Workshop with Quality Partners as one of the two core themes. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. If I am the only one in the room that thinks this is an important concept, I will feel badly. Not wrong; just badly.

The meeting should go well this weekend. I personally think it is going to be a GREAT meeting. I hope that some of the speakers are not too disappointed by the size of the group. There is nothing that I can do about it now, and indeed I think that we did every thing we could to draw a bigger crowd. But the time for recriminations is not now. It is after we have had the meeting, and after we have had the opportunity to do the “S” of PDSA. We need to study the information that we amass as and after the meeting transpires.

It become important because there already is dicussion about another meeting in 2002 or 2012 (more definitely).
More later.

1 comment:

  1. Wonderful good afternoon Dr. Noble,
    Just wanted to wish you all the best for the weekend workshop. Hope everything runs smoothly and all participants will enjoy themselves.
    I'll think of you all (as I'm slaving away at work) - wish I could be there,
    N.

    ReplyDelete

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