At Health Care for the Homeless, our goal is to constantly make sure the people we serve receive the best possible care. Quality is the evaluation of how we are doing and how we can do better. We have an all-star quality team doing this important behind the scenes work every day – and we're ready to bring it out of the shadows!

There are four key components to quality: health informatics, population health, compliance and performance improvement. We will begin by focusing on our performance improvement, or PI, work, which includes:

• constantly assessing the quality of the care we deliver
• constantly assessing client access to that care
• constantly adjusting to do better

There are nine PI goals for 2017. Over the course of the year, we will report bi-weekly on a new goal, introducing you to the teams, telling you about the work that they're doing, letting you know what clients are saying and keeping you informed about how you can help. Once we've briefed you on all the goals, we'll provide updates about how the projects are going. The first goal we are highlighting: colorectal cancer screenings. 

"Our goal in 2017 is to improve documentation, visibility and staff participation in the agency's performance improvement work. It should really be a part of what we do, not an afterthought," says Chief Quality Officer Tonii Gedin. She continued, "We hope staff will use the portal as the hub for accessing this important information and provide feedback about what we can do better and how to do it ." 

Interested in learning more about our PI work? Join us on the third Wednesday of every month at 8 a.m. in the large conference room at 421 Fallsway. Next meeting: Wednesday, March 15.