The Telligen Hospital Quality Improvement Contractor (HQIC) program connects over 190 small, rural and critical access hospitals from across the country to engage in activities that improve patient safety and quality of care. Although most hospitals enrolled in the program are working toward similar goals, such as reducing opioid prescribing, increasing access to behavioral health services, preventing sepsis and addressing readmissions, they each face challenges that are unique to their rural environments. Between 14-19% of the U.S. population resides in rural counties (source), leaving numerous rural hospitals feeling isolated, often with nearly 100 miles to the nearest facility.

Quality Collective is a network of diverse hospital quality leaders enrolled in the HQIC program. Virtual meetings are held on a bi-monthly basis with discussion topics that are participant-driven and focused on innovative strategies for improving patient safety. Every session features peer speakers who share their challenges, successes, tools and resources for the benefit of all who join the call. The group is governed by a mutual respect and desire to develop skills as quality improvement leaders. Guidelines for participation were created based on input from group members and include:

Quality Collective sessions are designed using continuous-quality improvement methodology. The Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) framework serves as the foundation for discussion. Sessions begin with a discussion of challenges faced for a given patient safety topic followed by collective brainstorming and interactive discussion which often reveal innovative strategies for charting a path toward improvement. For example, one hospital expressed challenges with providing timely feedback to providers on sepsis bundle compliance. Another hospital responded by sharing their real-time communication approach as well as templates for communicating performance results to providers. In addition to discussing challenges and sharing ideas, tools were also developed. The group collaborated to develop a “Sepsis Data Sharing Checklist” to assist quality leaders in presenting crucial sepsis improvement metrics effectively to hospital executive leadership and board members.

The Quality Collective is an effective way to meaningfully engage quality leaders in the HQIC program, a national quality improvement project, that encompasses hundreds of rural communities. The Quality Collective is exceptionally engaging and motivational for both new and experienced quality leaders in the field.