LeAnn Currey, L.P.N.
South Dakota
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As part of Transforming Care at the Bedside, Prairie Lakes Hospital adopted a new patient care model. Instead of splitting time between multiple patients on my unit, this care model enabled me to be where I was most needed-at the bedside of a dying patient.

Planchette Dey-Foy, R.N.
New York
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In an effort to prevent patient falls, North Shore University Hospital provided red socks to patients at risk. I experienced that the red socks-intended to alert hospital staff of a patient's risk for falls-also educated family members about their patient's risk and enabled them to become active participants in patient safety.

Mary Johnston, R.N.
Texas
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Staff at Seton Northwest Hospital tried multiple tests of change as part of Transforming Care at the Bedside, resulting in a new attitude to test improvements. One nurse demonstrated his willingness to try anything when eagerly accepting a daily assignment of patients at multiple locations throughout the hospital.

Charles Meek, R.N.
California
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Kaiser Roseville Medical Center adopted animal therapy as part of Transforming Care at the Bedside. I witnessed how this innovation improved the life of a patient who had just received a terminal diagnosis.

Stephanie Trela
Florida
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The collaborative care initiative implemented at James A. Haley VA Medical Center enabled providers to give care beyond a patient's initial needs. Trela experienced firsthand how the collaborative care model helped a patient who needed assistance beyond his surgery since he also cared for his wife with Alzheimer's disease.

Ashish K. Jha, M.D., M.P.H.
Associate Professor, Harvard School of Public Health
Massachusetts
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We often talk about quality care in technical terms, such as performance measurement and financial incentives, when it's really about just letting doctors and nurses do what's best for patients.
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Our payment systems still reward people for providing more care, but more care is not necessarily better care.

Diane Stollenwerk, M.P.P.
Vice President of Community Alliances, National Quality Forum
Washington
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Health care is no different than any other industry. Patients want to be treated as valued, respected people.

Jim Chase, M.H.A.
Executive Director, Minnesota Community Measurement
Minnesota
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Through our work with Aligning Forces for Quality we are able to move the focus back to quality by asking how we can add value to the patient.

Lisa Letourneau, M.D., M.P.H.
Senior Director, MaineHealth (Executive Director, Maine Quality Counts)
Maine
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Measuring quality at the population level can show what gaps exist in quality of care.

Bruce Siegel, M.D., M.P.H.
Former Aligning Forces for Quality Director/ (Chief Executive Officer, National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems)
District of Columbia
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Taking a community approach in improving quality makes sense. People don't get health care nationally; they get it in their community. Doctors and nurses know those communities and networks, which is an important element in delivering quality care.

Shelley Hirshberg
Executive Director, P2 Collaborative of Western New York
New York
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The time is right to bring stakeholders together in a concerted effort to align efforts and shift the reimbursement system.

Sue (Susan) Gordon, R.N.
Vice President, Patient Services at Memorial Hospital
Pennsylvania
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We need to ask what's going on in your community, what are you doing about it and how is it improving and sustaining that growth.

Bruce Siegel, M.D., M.P.H.
Former Aligning Forces for Quality Director/(Chief Executive Officer, National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems)
District of Columbia
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We now have ways of measuring how good doctors, nurses and hospitals are. Consumers need to be made aware of this, and empowered to use the information available to them.

Craig Brammer, M.A.
Director, The Health Improvement Collaborative of Greater Cincinnati
Ohio
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Once consumers recognize they have the power to shop for health care, they will crave the information and resources needed to improve the quality of their care.

Jim Chase, M.H.A.
Executive Director, Minnesota Community Measurement
Minnesota
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We need to identify the measurements that matter most to patients, so they can make better choices.

Julie Moretz
Director of Special Projects, Institute for Family Centered Care
Maryland
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Patients are the guardian of their own health care. We need to change the culture and help hospitals and other institutions realize this.

Larry Green, M.D.
Program Director, Prescription for Health: Promoting Healthy Behaviors in Primary Care Research Networks
Colorado
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The individual choices we make and the behaviors we adopt affect our health and health care.

Shelley Hirshberg
Executive Director, P2 Collaborative of Western New York
New York
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Doctors need to be partners in their patients' care.

Ted Rooney, R.N., M.P.H.
Project Leader, Maine Quality Counts
Maine
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Disparities in care exist. Patients need to better understand what quality care is so they can be empowered to navigate the health care system and to make better decisions.

Ashish K. Jha, M.D., M.P.H.
Assistant Professor of Health Policy, Harvard School of Public Health/Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Massachusetts
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Disparities in quality are engrained in the current health care system.

Elliott Fisher, M.D., M.P.H.
Principal Investigator, Dartmouth Atlas Project
New Hampshire
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The quality of care gap among different communities in the U.S. is startling.

Maribel Cifuentes, R.N.
Deputy Director, Prescription for Health: Promoting Healthy Behaviors in Primary Care Research Networks
Colorado
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Vulnerable populations often face numerous barriers to accessing health care in the U.S. Someone needs to speak for them.

Marshall Chin, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.P.
Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Chicago (Director, Finding Answers: Disparities Research for Change)
Illinois
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Health care disparities prevent people from living the types of lives they should live.

Bruce Siegel, M.D., M.P.H.
Former Aligning Forces for Quality Director/(Chief Executive Officer, National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems)
District of Columbia
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Physicians need to be taught what quality health care means.

Manoj Jain, M.D., M.P.H.
Medical Director for Quality Improvement, QSource and Infectious Disease Specialist
Tennessee
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Care will improve when doctors are engaged and see that the care they provide makes a difference.

Marshall Chin, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.P.
Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Chicago (Director, Finding Answers: Disparities Research for Change)
Illinois
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Leadership, knowledge and creative partnerships are key elements to transformational change in improving quality and reducing disparities.

Nancy Clarke
Executive Director, Oregon Health Care Quality Corporation
Oregon
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We need payment reform so that we buy health and not processes and procedures.

Scott Cook, Ph.D.
Deputy Director, Finding Answers
Illinois
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The Finding Answers program is working to discover interventions that will reduce racial/ethnic inequalities in care.

Stephen Somers, Ph.D.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Center for Health Care Strategies
New Jersey
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Identifying opportunities to create a greater integration of services will help transform quality.

Sue (Susan) Gordon, R.N.
Vice President, Patient Services at Memorial Hospital
Pennsylvania
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A large percentage of patients who go to emergency departments do not require emergency care.

Ted Rooney, R.N., M.P.H.
Project Leader, Maine Quality Counts
Maine
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Everyone has a part in improving health care.

Bruce Siegel, M.D., M.P.H.
Former Aligning Forces for Quality Director/ (Chief Executive Officer, National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems)
District of Columbia
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I first started thinking about quality in my residency. I realized I needed to think about how to create a system that would truly make a difference.

Cathy (Catherine) Davis, Ph.D., A.P.N.
Project Leader, Kansas City Quality Improvement
Missouri
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As a nurse and in my personal life I have seen that quality health care isn't quite there yet. This was underscored to me by the loss of my 19 year-old daughter-in-law.

Cristie Travis
Chief Executive Officer, Memphis Business Group on Health and Project Director of Healthy Memphis Common Table
Tennessee
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The health care system is not supporting doctors the way it should. The work we're now doing with Aligning Forces for Quality is exciting to me because of the partnership with doctors. We can show them that it is possible to measure quality, develop closer relationships with their patients and improve their practice.

Ed Wagner, M.D., M.P.H.
Director, MacColl Institute for Healthcare Innovation
Washington
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I began to get a sense that health care could improve in 1966 while I was in Vietnam and saw that systems can help improve care.

Jan Simon, R.N., M.H.S.A.
Program Director, Improving Performance Practice
Illinois
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Childbirth was the truly defining moment to me. My son and I nearly died due to poor communication and lack of resources. What I realized is that if some of those mistakes hadn't occurred it would have been a better experience for us.

Julie Moretz
Director of Special Projects, Institute for Family Centered Care
Maryland
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Through having a son with multiple heart problems I have seen the problems in the health care process that need to be addressed. I am proud to say we've made meaningful changes in terms of patient and family centered care.

Larry Green, M.D.
Program Director, Prescription for Health: Promoting Healthy Behaviors in Primary Care Research
Colorado
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I've found that it's the interaction with patients that motivate me more than anything. We need to determine what we can do to improve the quality of our performance in health care so that children can grow up with a foundation for success.

Lisa Letourneau, M.D., M.P.H.
Project Leader, Maine Quality Counts
Maine
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Working to improve the quality of care has become a passion of mine. After a career in emergency care I began to feel like I wasn't solving anything. I found that people often didn't know what it meant to have or prevent chronic illness. This drove me to work on the systems level to see how we can improve quality and impact more lives.

Manoj Jain, M.D., M.P.H.
Medical Director for Quality Improvement, QSource and Infectious Disease Specialist
Tennessee
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I believe it's an honor and a privilege to help and heal people. The doctor-patient relationship is more than a commercial transaction, it is a sacred bond. It is the place where doctors and patients become allies.

Nancy Clarke
Executive Director, Oregon Health Care Quality Corporation
Oregon
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I was working in disability care and I realized that care was about money and power, which led me to policy work. Later, through a personal experience, I saw flaws in the medical system that led to the loss of a family member. At that point I began to use my interest in health care policy, my personal experiences and optimism to make health care better.

Scott Cook, Ph.D.
Deputy Director, Finding Answers
Illinois
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I feel very privileged to work with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and be part of making a measureable difference in health care. Personally, I'm excited in the work I do and knowing that there are also others working on impacting and improving health care.

Anne Snowden, M.P.H., C.P.H.Q.
Director of Quality Reporting, Minnesota Community Measurement
Minnesota
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Transparency isn't about exposing the bad doctors. It's about recognizing those who are doing well.
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We want doctors to improve and do better.

Craig Brammer, M.A.
Director, The Health Improvement Collaborative of Greater Cincinnati
Ohio
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Patients deserve to know how the providers in their community are doing and what their role as a patient should be.

Cristie Travis
Chief Executive Officer, Memphis Business Group on Health and Project Director, Healthy Memphis Common Table
Tennessee
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We provide doctors with a seat at the table, affording them the resources to improve their practice and to influence public reporting and performance measurement.

Jan Simon, R.N., M.H.S.A.
Program Director, Improving Performance in Practice
Illinois
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Many of the measures that we have been using are those that we can get, not those that can make a difference in quality of care.

Jim Chase, M.H.A.
Executive Director, Minnesota Community Measurement
Minnesota
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We have moved past arguing if performance measurement is the right thing to do and are now working on the details on the best way to do it.
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It's the community itself that is taking charge. They are employing the measures to improve.

Bruce Siegel, M.D., M.P.H.
Former Aligning Forces for Quality Director/ (Chief Executive Officer, National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems)
District of Columbia
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We need to get past the biases and expectations that we all bring to provide quality health care.

Chris Queram, M.A.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality
Wisconsin
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There are too many frequent breakdowns in our health care system and we can do better.

Diane Stollenwerk, M.P.P.
Project Director, Puget Sound Health Alliance
Washington
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We need more information on the care we receive.

Lisa Mason
Program Manager, Greater Detroit Area Health Council's Save Lives Save Dollars program
Michigan
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Our country has some of the worst health care and that's something we can't tolerate.

Stephen Somers, Ph.D.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Center for Health Care Strategies
New Jersey
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We need to help those who are affected by fragmentation in the system.

T.J. Redington, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer, Community Mercy Health Partners
Ohio
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By our inaction we have endorsed poor quality of care.