ASQ to Host Healthcare Discussion for Congress

Part of the Society’s Ongoing Efforts in Washington

ASQ will host an expert panel discussion on quality and healthcare for members of Congress in April.

The panel discussion will be held April 26 for the 21st Century Health Care Caucus, a bipartisan organization of more than 20 House members who seek to expand the use of information and information technology to drive measurable improvements in the quality, safety and efficiency of healthcare.

The discussion, part of ASQ’s ongoing efforts in Washington to promote quality, coincides with the last day of the Quest for Excellence conference in the nation’s capital, which will showcase winners of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for 2005 on April 23-26.

The discussion panel tentatively will include ASQ members who are past Baldrige winners in the healthcare category, said Celeste Nair, ASQ’s Healthcare Division chair, who is helping to organize the event.

Healthcare also was the topic in recent meetings between ASQ representatives and staff for Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin). Baldwin is a member of the 21 st Century caucus and also serves on the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health. She has been involved in many initiatives to improve the U.S. healthcare system, particularly for the uninsured.

Other recent ASQ meetings in Washington focused on the National Innovation Act of 2005, introduced in December 2005 by Sens. John Ensign (R-Nevada) and Joe Lieberman (D-Connecticut). The proposed legislation, touted by President Bush in his 2006 State of the Union message, represents a comprehensive approach to spurring U.S. business innovation and investment in science, engineering and research.

The act’s funding mechanisms are tied to the design and implementation of a system of metrics. In meetings with staff for Lieberman and Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisconsin), a supporter of the act, ASQ offered to lend its expertise to this effort.

ASQ Managing Director Laurel Nelson-Rowe and Amy Kimball of Sellery Associates, ASQ’s representatives in Washington, also met with staff from the Senate Commerce Committee, where the National Innovation Act will be considered as it moves through the Senate.

For more information on these matters and other ASQ advocacy activities, please contact John Ryan, ASQ public policy analyst, at jryan@asq.org.