Quality Conference was a great time for healthcare professionals and leaders to collaborate and learn

The AHQA 2018 Quality Conference was a great time for healthcare professionals and leaders to collaborate and learn about the issues most pressing in healthcare today.

The conference opened up with K. Carrie Adair, from Duke University who presented on The Science of Burnout and Well-being in Healthcare: How Other People Matter. This was a great way to open up the conference because burnout is applicable to everyone, in every field, not just healthcare. Adair captured the audience by presenting on the meaning of burn out and how humans are just generally tired. Most notably, she focused in on nurses in healthcare and shared some alarming statistics on nursing burnout. Sure, we all know the healthcare industry is full of professionals who are burning out and overworked, but when you put it in a graph it is distressing. In critical care in particular, half of the nurses are “emotionally burnt out” 1 out of 3 have trouble sleeping, and 1 out of 4 are clinically depressed (Sexton, et. Al. (2009).Palliative Care). She shared some interesting studies paired with crowd participation on how humans are trained to see the negative. It was eye opening, and definitely a great way to start a conference, Bravo!

The rest of the two days were filled with breakout sessions on various hot topics in the healthcare industry. Of course, there was a fair share of presentations and breakout sessions on opioids. One of the biggest topics of the healthcare field today.

Sara Derr, PharmD and Meg Nugent, MHA, RN presented on behalf of the Iowa Healthcare Collaborative on the IHC Opioid Guardianship Project. Another stand out for me in opioids, was Amanda Ryan, PharmD, BCGP from Atom Alliance’s presentation on Opioid Performance Improvement Project in Nursing Homes: Utilizing a Virtual Collaborative to Drive Results.

The AHQA Quality Conference was a two-day event filled with many healthcare quality improvement professionals sharing ideas, collaborating and discussing the future of healthcare. Alongside some Medicaid and CMS representatives giving us the insight on the future of CMS’ Quality Improvement initiatives, timelines and expected outcomes. Jeneen Iwugo and Paul McGann, MD presented on Driving Change and Moving Toward the Future: Looking Ahead for the QIO ProgramBeing part of a QIN-QIO myself, I was most interested in this presentation. Iwugo and McGann thanked us for our hard work, commitment and for improving the quality, safety, and delivery of care to Medicare beneficiaries. They talked about the future of our work, and the bold aims they plan to set. Well, we look forward to seeing those aims, and discussing our success at them at the AHQA Quality Conference in 2019!