Champions Programs

Our Champions programs are a series of professional development programs and demonstrations designed to bring process engineering principles, systems thinking, and other quality improvement tools into the hands of the region’s healthcare professionals. Those trained in the programs are linked in learning networks to further develop and spread understanding of these methods.

Champions receive training in process improvement methodology and conduct demonstrations using the methodology, receive on-site coaching in process improvement, meet periodically with peers as a means of sharing experience, and publish and present findings as a means of disseminating replicable models for improvement. Champions test our methods in hospitals, ICUs, pathology labs, skilled nursing facilities, and community practices. They expose the weaknesses of the status quo, showing what waste, error, inefficiencies, and substandard practices are doing to patient outcomes and worker satisfaction. They document how systems fail both workers and patients, and they show that it can be fixed. They show the value of redesigned work.

Working with physicians, nurses, pharmacists, emergency medical services personnel, medical assistants, community health workers, and managers across the spectrum of healthcare settings, the Champions programs demonstrate the important role that leaders play in conceiving, testing, and sustaining quality improvement to target both clinical and operational problems in health care.