Healthcare Quality Conferences to Attend
By Erin Heilman October 4, 2019 Industry Trends
I recently received an email from a client asking me which Quality conferences I felt were worth attending. Medisolv of course makes our rounds at Quality conferences every year, but I hadn’t thought about it from a Quality person’s perspective. So, I went around internally here at Medisolv and rounded up what we thought is worth the investment to attend.
It should go without saying, but this list is just based off our opinion. Also, no one is paying us to promote any of these conferences listed here. Unless of course you’re interested… 😉
I broke this down into a few categories – highly recommended, recommended, tangential conferences and free conferences.
Highly Recommended Quality Conferences
HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society)
Everyone knows about HIMSS. It’s a monster. If you’d like to be overwhelmed, go to the vendor show floor. Last year I timed how long it took me to walk from one end to the other and it literally took me 13 minutes! But considering the conference from a Quality person’s perspective, I’d say the show is still worth attending. Yes, HIMSS is primarily focused on the technology aspect of healthcare but you can take so many different educational tracks. You’re bound to find content that is helpful for you. Also, it’s a great networking event because everyone and their mother goes.
And finally, as much as you cringe at the idea of talking to vendors, HIMSS is a really great place to technology shop. Every vendor who has ever emailed you about their product attends this thing and you can find the solutions that you need to enhance your tech stack – and pick up some free swag in the process.
NAHQ (National Association for Healthcare Quality)
NAHQ recently revamped their conferences and they did a really nice job with the set up. In particular, the NAHQ Next conference in the fall is fabulous for Quality people.
NAHQ Next
This conference held in the fall is completely focused on Quality and it’s great for everyone from abstractors to Quality directors. There is some great education here and good networking events.
NAHQ Summit
NAHQ added another conference in the spring that is more focused on thought leadership in the Quality space. This conference is better for executives, but there is still good education and networking opportunities.
IHI National Forum on Quality Improvement
Put on by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), this conference is another great one that focuses specifically on education. You’re not going to find a lot of technology solutions at this event, but you will learn a lot and have some opportunities for networking.
Recommended Quality Conferences
NQF (National Quality Forum) Annual Conference
The NQF organization are the people that endorse your measures that you report. Their conference, in their words, “convened hundreds of leaders and experts in health, policy and quality to discuss the current state of national quality, determine priorities for improvement, and identify future opportunities to achieve health equity.” Again, this is more of a thought leadership conference if you want to understand the current state of Quality measurement and where they plan to go.
NCQA (National Committee for Quality Assurance) Quality Talks
Website
This organization puts on some great industry thought leadership events. I would say in general these are more inspirational than educational. Not to say they aren’t worth going to – they are. The Quality Talks conference is a one-day event. I’d wrap this one around something else if I were attending it from out of town. I’ve personally attended this one a few years in a row and it is definitely inspiring, but it’s not tactical in nature.
Tangential Quality Conferences
AHA Leadership Conference
This leadership conference has a broader focus and is open to American Hospital Association (AHA) hospitals. I would say that this is more of an executive event. There are lots of opportunities for networking and leadership discussions.
MGMA (Medical Group Management Association) The Annual Conference
This conference is good for any physicians associated with your hospital. They cover everything from billing to Quality compliance.
NCQA
I know I mentioned this one before, but I wanted to add these other two tangential conferences in case there is any interest in PCMH, measure development or HEDIS.
NCQA Healthcare Quality Congress
Free Conferences
CMS Quality Conference
At this event you get to hear directly from CMS about their plans for Quality. It’s also good to attend to be seen as a thought leader. This conference is actually free to attend, but it fills up very quickly, so you have to make your plans early and stay on top of when it opens because they aren’t great at communicating the details.
Hospital & Healthcare IT Conference
This conference is also free, but you have to talk to vendors – like us 😀. This conference is more related to the IT side of Quality, but there are lots of networking opportunities. Plus, they pay your way.
Medisolv Quality Conference
One last thing before we go. Medisolv is considering putting together our very own conference. Part of this would be for clients specifically – like a user group conference. But we also like the idea of opening it up to everyone and creating a really great, educational, useful and inspirational Quality conference.
If you have any suggestions, please let us know what you think would be useful in a conference.
- What type of education are you hoping to get that you don’t see in the field now?
- What do you think Quality conferences lack?
- What would motivate you to attend a conference?
Send us your thoughts and thanks!
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