27th Annual National Forum on Quality Improvement in Healthcare

2015 marks the 27th year of an event that has shaped the course of health care quality in profound, enduring ways — the Annual IHI National Forum on Quality Improvement in Health Care. Lend your voice, share your ideas, and join a force of great minds that will inspire and challenge you on December 6-9, 2015, in Orlando, FL, USA. This conference is more than a chance to network with nearly 6,000 health care professionals and gain actionable ideas for your organization. It's also an opportunity to play a part in effecting real change in health care quality and safety. The 27th Annual National Forum on Quality Improvement in Health Care will shine a light on important new work in the US on population health as well as strong examples from around the globe that everyone can learn from.

2015 marks the 27th year of an event that has shaped the course of health care quality in profound, enduring ways — the Annual IHI National Forum on Quality Improvement in Health Care. Lend your voice, share your ideas, and join a force of great minds that will inspire and challenge you on December 6-9, 2015, in Orlando, FL, USA. This conference is more than a chance to network with nearly 6,000 health care professionals and gain actionable ideas for your organization. It's also an opportunity to play a part in effecting real change in health care quality and safety.

Successful health and health care organizations of the future will be those that can simultaneously deliver excellent quality of care, at lower total costs, while improving the health of their patients and communities. But to achieve IHI’s Triple Aim, health systems and leaders must adopt a new set of strategies that extend beyond the walls of the health care system to form community-level partnerships; these partnerships can bring greater focus and attention to patients’ daily lives and to the upstream social determinants of health. The 27th Annual National Forum on Quality Improvement in Health Care will shine a light on important new work in the US on population health as well as strong examples from around the globe that everyone can learn from.

CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS

• Five diverse keynote presentations: Hear from Maureen Bisognano, President and CEO of IHI; Donald M. Berwick, MD, MPP, FRCP, Senior Fellow and President Emeritus, IHI, and former Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services; Earvin “Magic” Johnson, two time NBA hall of famer, entrepreneur, motivational speaker, and philanthropist; Robert M. Wachter, MD, Professor and Associate Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, past president of the Society of Hospital Medicine, and past chair of the American Board of Internal Medicine; and Craig Kielburger, co-founder of Free The Children, Me to We, and We Day, social entrepreneur, and New York Times best-selling author.
• Meet with health and healthcare leaders, patient advocates, students, and others: Expand your network of expert sources. Meet with leaders from IHI and around the world to discuss new quality and safety efforts underway today, and the key improvement priorities leading hospitals, health systems, community health organizations, and allied professionals into 2016.
• More than 100 workshops: Learn from exemplars and improvement advisors who will demonstrate how organizations can: reroute fee-for-service systems toward value-based payment models that achieve better quality and reduced cost; partner with public health practices and community-level stakeholders to implement evidence-based upstream interventions that create and reinforce healthier lifestyles; eliminate disparities, achieve equity, and deliver high-value health care to diverse populations; integrate patients and families into every level of an organization; use improvement science to build reliable processes without overloading staff or increasing workflow burdens; and reinvigorate and empower whole organizations in the pursuit of zero patient harm.
• Hundreds of quality improvement storyboards: Review the leading quality and patient safety initiatives of 2015 from around the world to learn what worked, what didn’t, and how organizations can overcome any multitude of complexities and challenges that may be waiting for them back home.
• Exhibit hall: Check out the more than 130 companies showcasing products and services that assist health care professionals in improving the quality and safety of patient care.

A Sample of Sessions/Workshops:

• Health System Design to Impact the Social Determinants of Health
• Bias in Health Care
• Thriving in a Value-Based Environment
• Finding Comfort in Learning From Loss
• Response to a Global Risk of Contagious Disease
• Life in a Global Medicaid Budget One Year Later
• Violence in Hospitals and Ambulatory Care
• Patient Voice in Quality: Beyond Advisory Councils
• Improving Service in Cancer Care: A Pecha Kucha-Style Workshop
• Accelerating Hotspotting in Pediatrics
• Universal Roadmap for Population Health Management
• Environmental Sustainability and the Triple Aim
• The Journey from Fee-for-Service Star to Accountable Care

Why Attend the IHI National Forum?

"Hawaii Pacific Health has made the investment to come all the way to the IHI National Forum for over 10 years to help us focus, re-energize, and get pure, simple advice. We bring people to the Forum who have the potential to be leaders in the organization. For many of them, it's really eye-opening to see that quality improvement involves thousands of people worldwide."— Michael Mihara, MD, Chairperson, Alapono Committee for Patient Safety & Quality, Pali Momi Medical Center, Hawai‘i Pacific Health

"Value. For what we get in value, the cost is nominal... We include folks who aren't necessarily yet the leaders in the institution. The transformation they get from seeing this body of knowledge... sharing the stories  and collaborating with others from around the world, is invaluable to their development and to what they bring us back in return. Last year and this year, we've sent over a hundred people to the Forum each time." — Jamal Hakim, MD, Chief Operating Officer, Orlando Health

"I look forward to it every year... I find it an enriching event where there are many lessons to be learned — some of which I found myself implementing as soon as I got back home. In addition, it's great to be around so many like-minde​d individuals striving to create a better health care system." — Laurence Karper, Vice Chair, Psychiatry, Lehigh Valley Health Network, Pennsylvania

"I have been inspired at the National Forums by people who improve patient safety and bring improvement science into health care. Of course, Don Berwick inspires us all and calls us to action with his passion and insight. In the breakout sessions, I’ve found people who share their successes and failures as they work to improve health care so invigorating." — James Shirley, PhD, Oklahoma Center for Quality Improvement, Tulsa, Oklahoma

"The IHI National Forum is where a lot of us find our passion. At the end of the year, we get to go and see all the exciting things that people around the world are doing. We build connections." —  Peter Nixon, Kaiser Permanente Labor Management Partnership​, Oakland, California

"With all the rapid changes taking place around health care quality, I have often felt overwhelmed. Attending the National Forum is my lifeline — I always return with wonderful ideas to improve patient care at my organization." — Laurie LaFlamme, Quality Improvement Coordinator, Penobscot Valley Hospital, Maine

"My first IHI National Forum was in 1996, and I still get excited for each one, each year. When you are a change agent committed to improving health care systems, it can feel a little lonely. Not everyone welcomes change. But when I’m on the plane, traveling from far away, I feel as though I’m going to see “my tribe.” The National Forum is a life-changing event. I meet people there who, like me years ago, are just starting out on their improvement journeys. At the National Forum though, they become part of a worldwide movement. That feeling of belonging and being part of something global has never left me — it’s one of the many reasons I return to the National Forum every year." — Helen Bevan, Chief Transformation Officer, NHS Horizons Team

Read more from past attendees about this event here

Keynote Speakers

• Maureen Bisognano, President and CEO, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), previously served as IHI’s Executive Vice President and COO for 15 years. She is a prominent authority on improving health care systems, whose expertise has been recognized by her elected membership to the Institute of Medicine and by her appointment to The Commonwealth Fund's Commission on a High Performance Health System, among other distinctions.
• Earvin “Magic” Johnson is an NBA two-time hall of famer, entrepreneur, motivational speaker, and philanthropist. He is currently Chairman and CEO of Magic Johnson Enterprises, which provides high quality products and services that focus primarily on ethnically diverse and underserved urban communities through strategic alliances, investments, consulting, and endorsements. Mr. Johnson also serves as Chairman and Founder of the Magic Johnson Foundation, where he works to transform urban America through HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention programs, community empowerment centers, and the Taylor Michaels Scholarship program. 
• Robert M. Wachter, MD is Professor and Interim Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, where he also directs the Division of Hospital Medicine. Author of 250 articles and 6 books, he coined the term “hospitalist” in 1996 and is generally considered the “father” of the hospitalist field, the fastest growing specialty in the history of modern medicine. He is past president of the Society of Hospital Medicine and past chair of the American Board of Internal Medicine.
• Craig Kielburger is a social entrepreneur, New York Times best-selling author and speaker. Craig is the co-founder, along with his brother, Marc, of Free The Children, an international charity; Me to We, an innovative social enterprise; and We Day, a signature youth empowerment event. To date, Free The Children has built more than 650 schools and school rooms in developing countries, providing education to more than 55,000 children every day. Through Me to We, Craig and Marc are advancing a new vision of philanthropy that connects business to a social purpose.
• Donald M. Berwick, MD, MPP, FRCP, President Emeritus and Senior Fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement, is also former Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. A pediatrician by background, Dr. Berwick has served on the faculty of the Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health, and on the staffs of Boston's Children's Hospital Medical Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Brigham and Women's Hospital. He has also served as Vice Chair of the US Preventive Services Task Force, the first "Independent Member" of the American Hospital Association Board of Trustees, and Chair of the National Advisory Council of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

About The Institute for Healthcare Improvement

IHI is a leading innovator in health and health care improvement worldwide. For more than 25 years, we have partnered with visionaries, leaders, and front-line practitioners around the globe to spark bold, inventive ways to improve the health of individuals and populations. Recognized as an innovator, convener, trustworthy partner, and driver of results, we are the first place to turn for expertise, help, and encouragement for anyone, anywhere who wants to change health and health care profoundly for the better. To advance our mission, IHI’s work is focused in five key areas: Improvement Capability; Person- and Family-Centered Care; Patient Safety; Quality, Cost, and Value; and Triple Aim for Populations. Learn more at ihi.org.