On-Demand Webinar: Laboratory Medicine and Healthcare Quality: Foundational Pillars for Excellence-On-Demand Webinar - Laboratory Medicine and Healthcare Quality: Foundational Pillars for Excellence

Video Transcription

Video Summary

During a Healthcare Quality Week webinar hosted by NACU (National Association for Healthcare Quality), speakers emphasized that achieving healthcare excellence requires cross-disciplinary coordination and the application of proven quality methods—especially when introducing new processes such as clinical biomarkers.<br /><br />Elise Eckenrode opened by describing NACU’s role in setting standards for the healthcare quality profession through its competency framework, education, and the CPHQ (Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality) credential.<br /><br />Tricia Ravalico (Abbott) introduced the Univance of Healthcare Excellence program, a global award recognizing collaborative, “avant‑garde” healthcare teams that measurably improve outcomes across four stakeholders: patients, payers, clinicians, and health systems. She highlighted that strong projects rely on unified teams (quality, lab, nursing, IT, pharmacy, etc.) and clear key performance indicators (KPIs). The award is free to apply for, product-agnostic, and includes global recognition and publication opportunities.<br /><br />Kari presented practical quality tools using sepsis care as an example, focusing on process mapping and Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA). She explained how a multidisciplinary team should map the current process (not the ideal), identify what can go wrong at each step, analyze causes and effects, and score failures by severity, frequency, and detectability to prioritize mitigation plans. She noted common pitfalls such as mapping in isolation, excessive or insufficient detail, subjective scoring, and team dynamics that limit candor.<br /><br />Stephanie Mercado (NACU CEO) connected these tools to NACU’s validated Healthcare Quality Competency Framework, shared research showing increased organizational value of quality professionals during COVID, and data indicating CPHQ-certified professionals perform at higher competency levels. The webinar closed with a call to share best practices and apply for the Univance award.

Keywords

Healthcare Quality Week webinar

NACU (National Association for Healthcare Quality)

CPHQ certification

Healthcare Quality Competency Framework

cross-disciplinary coordination

clinical biomarkers implementation

Univance of Healthcare Excellence award

key performance indicators (KPIs)

process mapping

Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA)