Health care organizations across the country are faced with the challenge of staying competitive while continuously improving all aspects of their organizations. Meeting these challenges and moving from good to greatness is the focus of The Joint Commission and Joint Commission Resources' 21st Annual Conference on Quality and Safety.

This year's annual conference, "Organizational Greatness: Actions for Health Care Excellence," set for November 12-14 at the Hilton Chicago, will highlight strategies to help leadership instill in practitioners a passion for patient safety and quality that extends system wide, and take the steps necessary to get there. An important change to this year's event is the addition of two simultaneous tracks - one on quality and the other on safety. The quality track concentrates on the measurement and continuous improvement aspects of organizational greatness. The safety track explores evidence-based practice and implementation methodologies that have helped health care providers achieve a culture of patient safety.

The first day's keynote speaker, Scott Gottlieb, MD, former deputy commissioner for medical and scientific affairs at FDA, will explore the future of health care by examining the economic, regulatory and technological factors that will have a transforming impact. Dennis S. O'Leary, MD, president, The Joint Commission, will examine what it takes for leaders to break through barriers to improving patient safety and health care quality. In addition, the day will include a special recognition ceremony and reception for winners of the 11th Annual Codman Award, honors bestowed by The Joint Commission to recognize excellence in the use of outcomes measures to achieve health care quality improvement.

The second day of the conference will open with Leonard Marcus, PhD, of the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative discussing the idea of building connectivity across organizations.

Dr. Marcus will explain how "meta-leaders" leverage and expand health care capacity by strategically linking people, information, expertise and knowledge, and how the lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina can be linked to national strategies for homeland security. The remainder of the day will focus on "Creating a CAREing Culture," featuring case examples and experiences in building teamwork that produce improved quality and safety.

The final day of the conference will feature a look at strategic surveillance systems - S3 - that The Joint Commission is launching to drive improvement, as well as a presentation on the role of leaders in improving patient safety. Jim Karas, author of the best-selling book The Business Plan for the Body, and contributor to ABC's Good Morning America, will close the conference with a motivational speech focused on how to achieve personal and professional success.

Two optional pre-conference workshops will be offered on the morning of November 12. The first workshop will provide an overview of The Joint Commission's Annual Quality Report and interpretation of the 2006 findings. The report details how America's hospitals are performing against evidence-based measures. The second workshop will examine The Joint Commission's 2008 National Patient Safety Goals and related Requirements. The focus of this session will be on current expectations in meeting these Requirements and the major challenges that health care organizations face in overcoming identified barriers to success. Strategies for implementing both the current and the 2008 Goals and Requirements will be presented.

Cost of the national conference is $795 or discounted at $725 for registration by October 12. Discounts also are available for multiple participants from the same organization. The cost of each pre-conference is $175. To register to participate, please call the Joint Commission's Customer Service Center at 1.877.223.6866 or visit www.jcrinc.com.

More Industry Headlines