AHRQ Summit: Improving Health Care Quality for All Americans

Conference Summary

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) held its first Summit on health care quality and disparities on April 4, 2005, at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington, DC. More than 250 people in the forefront of health care delivery and quality improvement from both the public and private sectors came together to exchange information on "lessons learned" and address ways to improve health care quality and eliminate health disparities.

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Summit Goal

The goal of the first Quality Summit was to generate energy and exchange knowledge that can be translated into continued interactions among participants and beyond, through networks, meetings, and other communication mechanisms. Participants concluded that the challenge will be to keep exploring diverse ways to disseminate knowledge and generate continued momentum for pushing forward the Quality Challenge—to improve health care quality for all Americans.

The day's agenda was developed to:

• Assess where we are in addressing health care quality and disparities.
• Share recent lessons learned from policy, research, and practice.
• Highlight the link between improving health care quality and reducing health disparities.

Select for a brief summary of the summit's key themes and presentation overviews, and for a video summary of the summit.

The individual presentations and panel discussions highlighted important challenges and strategies for addressing health care quality and reducing disparities. Examples from the field, findings from the research, and lessons on leading by example were summarized.

Individual Presentations

• "The Quality Challenge" by Carolyn Clancy, M.D. (Video presentation).
• "Turning the Corner on Quality" by Donald Berwick, M.D., M.P.P.
• "Quit Digging Your Grave With a Knife and Fork" by the Honorable Mike Huckabee

Panel Presentations

• Panel 1—Promising Quality Improvement Initiatives: Reports From the Field
• Panel 2—Eliminating Health Care Disparities
• Panel 3—Promising National Initiatives