The Healthcare Quality Book: Vision, Strategy, and Tools, Fourth Edition

Every healthcare organization is on its own unique journey, but each one needs a road map to a common destination—quality. Improving the quality of care is an essential strategy for surviving—and thriving—in today’s demanding healthcare environment.

The Healthcare Quality Book: Vision, Strategy, and Tools provides the framework, strategies, and practical tactics that all healthcare leaders need as they learn, implement, and manage quality improvement efforts. With chapters by a group of leading contributors with significant expertise and breadth of experience, the book offers a detailed exploration of the components of quality, while incorporating techniques to continuously improve and transform healthcare organizations.

The book is organized into four parts. Part I establishes the foundation for healthcare quality and examines the history of the quality movement. Part II speaks in depth about tools, measures, and their applications in the pursuit of quality. Part III focuses on the intersection of leadership and culture—which is central to the pursuit of quality and safety. Part IV concludes the book with a series of chapters that discuss many of the emerging trends that are shaping the contemporary quality landscape.

Building on the success of the first three editions, this new edition has been significantly redeveloped and reimagined, with content strategically refined to focus on what is most essential for healthcare managers. It features new and expanded information on:

• Community health quality improvement
• Quality measures and leadership
• Provider profiling and registries
• Culture-of-safety and high-reliability organizing
• Health information technology

The Healthcare Quality Book is designed to be both an instructional guide and a conversation starter for all students of healthcare quality—all healthcare professionals, current and future.

About the Author

David B. Nash, MD, MBA, is founding dean emeritus, and he remains on the full-time faculty as the Dr. Raymond C. and Doris N. Grandon Professor of Health Policy, at the Jefferson College of Population Health. His 11-year tenure as dean completes more than 30 years on the university faculty. A board-certified internist, Dr. Nash is internationally recognized for his work in public accountability for outcomes, physician leadership development, and quality-of-care improvement. He has achieved wide acclaim for his COVID-19 thought leadership and has been named as chief health advisor for the Philadelphia Convention and Visitor’s Bureau.

Repeatedly named to Modern Healthcare’s list of the Most Powerful Persons in Healthcare, his national activities cover a wide scope. Dr. Nash is a principal faculty member for quality-of-care programming for the American Association for Physician Leadership. He served on the National Quality Forum Task Force on Improving Population Health and the John M. Eisenberg Award Committee for The Joint Commission.

Dr. Nash received his bachelor’s degree in economics (Phi Beta Kappa) from Vassar College, his medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, and his master of business administration in health administration (with honors) from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Maulik S. Joshi, DrPH, is president and chief executive officer of Meritus Health, a regional health system serving the tristate region of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Meritus Health encompasses more than 3,000 employees and 600 medical staff, with a 327-bed medical center, medical group, home health, and medical equipment company. Previously, Dr. Joshi was chief operating officer and executive vice president of integrated care delivery at the Anne Arundel Health System (AAHS) in Annapolis, Maryland.

Dr. Joshi was also at the American Hospital Association in Chicago, where he served as associate executive vice president and president of the Health Research and Educational Trust. He has served as senior advisor at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and as president and CEO of the Delmarva Foundation, where he received the 2005 US Senate Productivity Award.

Elizabeth R. Ransom, MD, FACS, is regional chief medical officer for Oregon at Providence St. Joseph Health System. In that capacity, she is responsible for coordination of care in the inpatient environment with oversight for quality, patient safety, program growth, physician leadership development, community health and physician services. She coordinates, advances, and aligns with providers to enhance affordability, access, quality, and the reduction of variability of care delivery across the Oregon region.

Previously, Dr. Ransom was executive vice president and chief physician executive of Baptist Health in Jacksonville, Florida. Prior to joining Baptist Health, Dr. Ransom was executive vice president and clinical leader for the eight-hospital North Zone of Texas Health Resources (THR). She also served as THR’s lead for the academic affiliation with the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Scott B. Ransom, DO, FACHE, is a partner in the Health & Life Sciences Advisory at Oliver Wyman. He serves as a consultant to health systems, academic medical centers, medical schools, health insurance companies, private equity firms, healthcare start-up companies, and other leading institutions. He has served more than 100 health systems, academic medical centers, and medical schools on seven continents, including eight of the top ten as ranked by U.S. News & World Report.

Dr. Ransom has more than 30 years of operations, clinical, and leadership experience, including appointments as president and CEO of the University of North Texas Health Science Center. He previously served as hospital vice president for medical affairs and then as senior vice president and chief quality officer at the Detroit Medical Center.