Episode Details

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Stephanie Mercado of the National Association for Healthcare Quality (NAHQ).

Stephanie was recently named as a Top Most Influential person in healthcare which is representative of her work and the work of NAHQ.  NAHQ, aims to provide solutions for the most pressing issues in healthcare which today vast.

 

“…..but I think could be summarized in three words.  Care, cost and cliff. We want to stay ahead of where health care delivery is going. We want to make sure that from a cost perspective that we are helping to make health care sustainable.  And that we are readying ourselves for the workforce cliff.  Because we know workforce shortages are going to get much worse over the next 15 years and we really see quality and safety, equity and value as huge drivers and business strategies to advancing all of that.”

 

In talking about quality, Stephanie provides historical context as to how that has evolved over the years since Medicare was signed into law in the ‘60s to today where there are not shared definitions or common language across all of the people whose job in one way or another does bear responsibility for quality and safety.  NAHQ defines the profession of quality and safety with detailed competencies for the entire workforce.

 

“We tell people what to do in healthcare all the time. Make it safer, make it more affordable.  But we are not really good at telling people, the workforce, the leaders, how to achieve it. And that is really where we need to focus. It’s as much on the how as it is on the what.”

 

As to advice for other emerging leaders….. Being prepared, doing your homework, and walking the talk matters.  As a leader, Stephanie also consumes a lot of information, yet she is very pressed for time (work, travel, speaking engagements, two boys in travel hockey. The list goes on!).  Her new favorite time hack is listening to summarized books while on the treadmill or out walking the dog.

 

And she needs that time.  Owning the issue of the profession of healthcare quality, the discipline of healthcare quality and the competency standards for that profession are big and important jobs for NAHQ.  Yet, with tremendous potential to impact, as Stephanie would say, cost, care and cliff.

 

Guest Bio:

Stephanie Mercado is the chief executive officer/executive director of the National Association for Healthcare Quality® (NAHQ), the leader in the development of industry-standard healthcare quality and safety competencies, training and certification in healthcare quality. The Chicago-based association serves healthcare professionals across the country and internationally.

Mercado brings more than 20 years of healthcare industry experience to her lead role at NAHQ. Since joining NAHQ in 2013, she has implemented innovations and introduced methodologies to research and define standardized competencies for the healthcare quality profession. This has resulted in advancement of quality professi