Who We Are

People

The IHQC team leverages a deep knowledge of the safety net to identify your organization’s most pressing challenges and help you create lasting change.

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Alumni

IHQC has supported the improvement efforts of more than 150 safety net organizations and over 1000 healthcare professionals.

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Funders & Partners

IHQC is grateful to the foundations, institutions, and associations that have partnered with us to transform safety net healthcare.

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Our Mission

To optimize the capacity of California safety net organizations to provide high quality healthcare by advancing their ability to engage and sustain quality improvement initiatives, instilling an organizational culture of quality improvement, and improving their readiness for an expanded role in integrated healthcare delivery environments.

Our History

In the mid-2000s, the emergence of policies aimed at increasing adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHR) and improving patients’ quality of care revealed a need to support safety net healthcare provider organizations in preparing for the anticipated, extensive changes.

In 2006, the Blue Shield of California Foundation, Kaiser Permanente Southern California Community Benefit, L.A. Care Health Plan, and the UniHealth Foundation collaborated with leading experts in the fields of quality and process improvement, adult educational theory, and health information technology (HIT) implementation to design an applied learning model for technical assistance services that would increase Southern California safety net clinics’ readiness to implement quality improvement (QI) initiatives supported by HIT. This design process yielded the Building Clinic Capacity for Quality (BCCQ) Model, which blends trainings, peer-to-peer engagement and individualized coaching.

With the completion of its design phase, the BCCQ Model found a home at Community Partners in 2007, and was implemented as the BCCQ Program under the leadership of Bridget Hogan Cole. In the years that followed, Ms. Cole and her staff not only expanded the BCCQ Program, but also contributed to the burgeoning “Safety Net” portfolio at Community Partners with initiatives such as the Statewide Specialty Care Initiative (California HealthCare Foundation and Kaiser Permanente), eConsult initiatives (Blue Shield of California Foundation), and Patient Experience improvement programs and the Central Performance Improvement Program with the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services.

In the face of a continuously changing healthcare environment, and with the growing successes of each new and ongoing project, Ms. Cole led the creation of the Institute for High Quality Care (IHQC) in 2015, establishing a focused organizational structure that allowed the trainings, programs, other services rooted in the BCCQ Program to expand its content scope and reach a broader audience.

IHQC has built a strong reputation and trust among safety net providers by developing a wide range of services tailored to meet their needs that include evidence-based trainings, technical assistance, and consultative support. The effectiveness of IHQC’s work is acknowledged in participant evaluations and demonstrated through the projects shared by program attendees, who range from newly hired to veteran staff, front-line workers to executives, administration to direct-care providers, and many others. Over 150 community clinic and safety net organizations – more than 1,000 providers and staff – throughout California have participated in our programs and initiatives. IHQC’s expertise has increasingly been highlighted through participation in speaking engagements, panel moderation, and RFP review panels.

IHQC’s history is rooted in an unwavering dedication to supporting the safety net and the communities they serve, and it is our hope that we continue to expand our services and strengthen new and existing partnerships to advance our mission. We invite you to learn about our programs and initiatives, explore our calendar for upcoming workshops, and to contact us with your questions and thoughts.

IHQCWho We Are