Additional Activities

The MHA Keystone Center is one of eight organizations that created the Superior Health Quality Alliance (Superior Health) to improve the quality of health and healthcare through innovation, effectiveness and efficiency in designing and implementing initiatives that are person-centered and integrated across the continuum of care and services.

In February 2019, Superior Health was named as an NQIIC by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).  In November, it was awarded a five-year contract to serve as a Quality Innovation Network – Quality Improvement Organization in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The work under the contract focuses on improving nursing home quality, increasing quality of care transitions, increasing chronic disease prevention and self-care, increasing patient safety, and improving behavioral health and opioid misuse.

Superior Health members include the Illinois Health and Hospital Association, MetaStar, the Midwest Kidney Network, the Minnesota Hospital Association, MPRO, Stratis Health and the Wisconsin Hospital Association. Under Superior Health, the MHA Keystone Center continues to implement the innovations necessary to prevent harm, save lives and lower healthcare costs.

In 2018, the MHA Keystone Center partnered with Vlasic & Roth LLC. The Birmingham-based firm analyzes hospital data and provides methodologies and evidence-based interventions to drive high-impact, measurable and sustainable performance improvement. As part of the partnership, the Implementation Science: Healthcare Performance Improvement Certification Course is available to all in the healthcare community. 

What is Implementation Science?

Implementation science is the study of how to transform evidence-based ideas into changes incorporated into everyday practice that improve healthcare outcomes. It involves assessing barriers to change, understanding the target group and setting, and selecting effective strategies and measures to change behavior.

Implementation Science: Healthcare Performance Improvement Certification Course

The Implementation Science: Healthcare Performance Improvement Certification Course combines virtual or in-person training and 1:1 coaching. The various teaching styles helps participants develop a strong foundation of theory while ensuring the new information is appropriately put into practice.  

Why Implementation Science?

Implementing a strategy that requires a long-lasting change in human behavior is one of the greatest leadership challenges for healthcare professionals. An estimated 70% of initiatives that require a change from front-line staff fail to produce results.

Implementation science provides healthcare teams the skills and tools to close the idea-to-implementation gap to attain solid execution of evidence-based practices for quality and performance improvement. This intensive training program will teach how to rise above the day-to-day grind and provide the necessary clarity, commitment, collaboration and accountability required for effective implementation.

The MHA Keystone Center is preparing for future cohorts of the Implementation Science: Healthcare Performance Improvement Certification Course. Please check the MHA Member Portal for an up-to-date listing of events.

In September 2016, the MHA Keystone Center was awarded a Hospital Improvement Innovation Network (HIIN) contract by the CMS.

The MHA Keystone Center partnered with the Illinois Health and Hospital Association (IHA) and Wisconsin Hospital Association (WHA) to form the Great Lakes Partners for Patients (GLPP) HIIN. Its goal was to reduce 14 hospital-acquired conditions (HACs) by 20 percent and readmissions by 12 percent, from a 2014 baseline.

After three and a half years of quality improvement work, the GLPP HIIN can share the many successes 316 hospitals across Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin achieved during this period. As a network, the GLPP HIIN saw a total cost savings of $292,903,501, saved 3,350 lives and avoided 25,204 incidents of harm within hospitalized patients. GLPP HIIN hospitals also increased person and family engagement practices and addressed health disparities.

The GLPP HIIN partnership built on the quality improvement work of the IHA, MHA, and WHA through the CMS national Partnership for Patients Hospital Engagement Network (HEN) 1.0 and 2.0, contracts awarded from 2011 to 2015.

While work from the HIIN concluded on March 31, 2020, the MHA Keystone Center continues to focus on sustaining and accelerating national progress and momentum toward harm reduction and reducing health disparities. 

The MHA Keystone Center brings together hospitals and state and national quality experts for various events throughout the year. These workshops, meetings and training events share evidence-based best practices to improve patient care and reduce healthcare costs.

Coaching Calls

Coaching calls are held on a monthly or quarterly basis for up to 60 minutes each. Teams share their successes and barriers to implementing interventions and can ask questions and interact with colleagues to enhance learning and networking between hospitals. Coaching calls are done in conjunction with other events and used as a follow-up to a previous meeting.

Webinars

Content experts are invited to share various hot topics via a webinar hosted by the MHA Keystone Center. Each event includes a question-and-answer period at the end and is accessible on the MHA Community site following the webinar, as a recording.