40 Years of Quality Improvement

During National Patient Safety Awareness Week in March, Stratis Health began a year-long celebration of our 40th anniversary as a leader in health care quality improvement and patient safety. Since 1971, Stratis Health, originally the Foundation for Health Care Evaluation, has been leading and supporting health care quality in Minnesota and nationally—at the provider, community, and population levels, and across the full continuum of health care.

Over the past 40 years, Stratis Health has reached out to nearly every hospital, primary care clinic, nursing home, and home health agency in Minnesota to assist them with improving the care they deliver. We've had the privilege of guiding and working alongside providers to facilitate improvement in health outcomes and the processes and culture that support care delivery.

Stratis Health has continuously held and successfully implemented the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) contract in Minnesota since the program's inception in the 1970s—this work has been our hallmark program over the life of the organization. I am pleased and proud to share the news that Stratis Health successfully met the rigorous performance measures for the current 2008-2011 QIO contract; and based on our excellent performance, we will continue to serve as Minnesota's QIO in the next three-year scope of work, which begins on August 1, 2011.

Building on the success and results of its QIO program effort, Stratis Health is a growing organization with more than 60 staff and a diverse funding base. Stratis Health develops and carries out a wide variety of quality and safety improvement initiatives for state and federal agencies, foundations, health plans, and others. And, with our Key Health Alliance partners, we serve as the federally designated Health Information Technology Regional Extension Center, one of 62 such centers across the country.

Stratis Health's strategies and core competencies have evolved as quality improvement and patient safety science have advanced, and include measuring and reporting performance, adopting and effectively using technology, redesigning care processes, and changing organizational cultures. Stratis Health staff members and their work are nationally recognized in rural health, health information technology, cultural competence, and long-term care quality and safety.

In both clinical and non-clinical areas, Stratis Health sits at the intersection of research, policy, and practice. At its core, the organization's work helps providers translate evidence-based research and guidelines into practice to improve quality, advance prevention and wellness, and foster safe and person-centered care. While our work often focuses on system changes, the individual impact on patients and providers is what inspires us to support excellence in care delivery.

With the nation in the midst of groundbreaking efforts to innovate in care delivery and payment design, it's an extraordinary time for Stratis Health to be celebrating 40 years in health care quality. I thank you for your support and shared commitment to quality. We look forward with anticipation and excitement to our future…as the saying goes, life begins at 40, and we are poised and ready to the lead the way.

Jennifer P. Lundblad, PhD, MBA

President and CEO, Stratis Health