Recently, the National Association for Healthcare Quality (NAHQ) issued their first ever ROI-Q Report which aims to quantify the return on investment for quality. In this report NAHQ highlights several success stories from healthcare organizations that have embraced organizational quality improvement as a strategic imperative. The report outlines 5 key strategies associated with quality improvement efforts, specifically¹:
- Effectively communicating the return on investment of quality and safety
- Effectively training and empowering teams by raising them to industry standards
- Embracing quality as a business strategy
- Defining everyone’s role in quality
- Requiring annual quality and safety training for the entire workforce
These strategies clearly demonstrate that investing in quality improvement is an investment in the future of healthcare. The American Hospital Association’s recently issued Care Delivery Transformation Framework which lists Safe and High-Quality Care as a foundational principle to intentionally improve how healthcare systems better meet the needs of their patients and communities.²
Throughout the Mississippi Delta Region, hospitals that have undertaken dedicated efforts to improve organizational quality have experienced. In 2023, the Delta Region Community Health Systems Development Program indicated that hospitals that participated in their grant program experienced the following³:
- 83% of hospitals improved financial performance.
- 100% of hospitals improved quality of care.
- 100% of hospitals reduced medical errors.
- 10 new telehealth service lines were added to fill gaps in local health care.
- Over $1 million invested to enhance telehealth equipment and systems in rural hospitals and clinics
As consumers become increasingly cost-conscious and major market disruptions continue to shake the healthcare industry, quality, safety, and patient experience will be key differentiators for patients as they look for where they will go for their care. Embracing quality as an organizational strategy is a critical imperative.
To better understand your organization’s Quality Program – please complete the quick checklist linked here.
- https://cdn.nahq.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/NAHQ-ROI-Q_Report_FINAL-spreads.pdf?_gl=1*1wamcvt*_gcl_au*NTMyNjk3ODU2LjE3NTMzNjY0MjA.*_ga*NTE5MzE0NjM1LjE3NTMzNjY0MTk.*_ga_516JDN69VG*czE3NTM0MDMxNjYkbzMkZzAkdDE3NTM0MDMxNjkkajU3JGwwJGgw
- https://www.aha.org/system/files/media/file/2025/01/care-delivery-transformation-framework-infographic.pdf
- https://www.hrsa.gov/rural-health/grants/rural-community/delta#:~:text=What%20impact%20has%20DRCHSD%20had,in%20rural%20hospitals%20and%20clinics.
