2025 Fall Newsletter

You’re Invited! Join us at the AAHQ Fall 2025 Quality Conference hosted by the Arkansas Association for Healthcare Quality (AAHQ), an affiliate of the Arkansas Hospital Association.

📅 Date: Friday, October 3, 2025
🕗 Time: 8:00 AM – 3:30 PM
📍 Location: CHI St. Vincent (Little Rock, AR)

Theme: Quality Unboxed: Fresh Strategies for Patient-Centered Improvement

This year’s conference brings together healthcare leaders and professionals to explore innovative approaches to quality improvement, patient safety, interoperability, readmission reduction, and community-based care.

✅ 6.0 Nursing Contact Hours and 6.0 CPHQ hours approved
✅ Networking, exhibitors, and silent auction

Registration:
Advance registration required by October 1, 2025.
For details, contact Cindy Harris at 501-224-7878 Ext. 145.

We look forward to seeing you for a full day of learning, collaboration, and fresh strategies for patient-centered improvement!

Online registration link:

AAHQ-Fall Education Conference Online Registration Link

Full brochure with biographical information or to print for faxed registrations, please click link below!

Fall_Final-AAHQ

From the President’s Desk

Submitted by: Devin Terry, PhD, RN, ACNS-BC, CPHQ

Hello everyone! I hope you are enjoying the cooler temperatures and, even though we are most accustomed to drastic temperature changes here in Arkansas, I do love this reprieve. For many fall is marked by the beginning of the football season, Go Hogs, but for those of us in Quality it is marked by celebrating what drives us, National Healthcare Quality week. This year we will celebrate all the great healthcare workers in quality on October 19-25! I hope you are already planning your celebrations!

Another event to be on the lookout for is the AAHQ Fall Conference, scheduled for Friday, October 3, 2025, at St. Vincent in Little Rock. Please stay tuned into the AAHQ social media accounts, or notifications from your AAHQ Board. A lot of work has gone into the planning of this event with each one of you in mind! It will be a great day of fellowship, learning, and yes, the silent auction is back! So, bring your checkbooks and get ready to do that last minute gift buying that you’ve been putting off 😉

History of Healthcare Quality Week

The National Healthcare Quality Week was established by the National Association of Healthcare Quality in 1985, to recognize and celebrate the contribution of healthcare quality experts in their various organizations. Every year, NAHQ holds a week-long celebration in collaboration with groups dedicated to improving healthcare quality. NAHQ founded the Healthcare Quality Education Foundation to further its understanding of quality healthcare delivery. Healthcare quality professionals work to ensure patients receive the best quality healthcare possible and that they are treated with the best equipment available, as well as managed properly to prevent them from frequently coming back to the hospital for the same problem. Because of the critical role that healthcare quality experts play; their relevance has been emphasized every third week in October for more than three decades (nahq.org).

Warm regards,

Devin Terry

AAHQ President

Healthcare Quality Week

October 19th – October 25th, 2025

Visit: https://nahq.org/hqw/

Protocol Update

Submitted by: Chelsey Davidson, BS, CPHQ

This year, we are thankful to have been able to offer six scholarships to AAHQ members to attend the 2025 NAHQ Next Virtual Conference. With 50+ hours of continuing education available, the presentations from this conference covered a wide range of topics and innovative ideas for improving healthcare. If you are interested in providing a review of one or more of the 2025 NAHQ Next presentations for the AAHQ Newsletter, please reach out to me at chelsey.davidson@conwayregional.org. In addition to the NAHQ Next scholarships that were offered, we still have some scholarships available to assist members with obtaining a new CPHQ certification and CPHQ renewals. If you would like more information about this, please reach out to me!

The President-Elect position will be open in January and we are looking for candidates to fill this position. If you are interested in serving a three year term on the AAHQ Board (one year as president elect, one year as president, and one year as past president), reach out to me for additional information. We will open up the nomination process after the AAHQ Fall Conference and hold our election before the end of the year. Maybe you know someone who would make a great President for our Board. Feel free to nominate them!

Chelsey Davidson

Protocol Team Lead

Hospital Quality Spotlight

Unity Health is a system of three hospitals and four campuses in Northeast Arkansas as well as a wide array of clinics and outpatient services. Our service area includes White, Cleburne, Independence, Jackson, Lonoke, Prairie, Pulaski and Woodruff Counties. Anchored by Unity Health- White County Medical Center, the system also operates Unity Health-Newport, a critical access hospital in Jackson County, and Unity Health-Jacksonville, an acute care facility in Pulaski County with focus on Emergent Care and Behavioral Health. The Mission of Unity Health is to Improve the Quality of Health and Wellbeing of the Communities we serve through Compassionate Care. The focus on Quality runs deep in the history of Unity Health, having been recognized by the Arkansas Institute for Performance Excellence with the Governor’s Award three times.

A couple of features make Unity Health somewhat unique. Since 2015, Unity Health-WCMC has participated in graduate medical education by hosting a residency program which currently has over 100 residents between Internal Medicine, Family Practice, Emergency Medicine and Behavioral Health. Unity Health is also unique in that throughout the system, over 90 beds on five separate units are devoted to Behavioral Health Care.

Unity Health takes a system-wide approach to Performance Improvement. Representatives from each facility, the medical staff, administration and key staff members serve on the Quality Assessment/Utilization Review Committee and meet on a monthly basis to evaluate data, discuss opportunities for improvement and oversee ongoing projects. The PI process touches every corner of each facility through regular reporting as well as participation in projects related to priorities for improvement. A disciplined PDSA cycle is used to guide teams through the process. Rapid Cycle Improvement is utilized when opportunities related to quality, patient safety, infection prevention or any other related topics are identified on the spur of the moment and can be resolved quickly.

NAHQ Next Article

Submitted by: Erin Bolton, RN, BSN, CPHQ

I would like to thank the AAHQ board for providing a way for me to attend the recent NAHQ Next virtual event. I was able to attend several of the live sessions presented over three days and have accessed several of the on-demand resources as well. I intend to review more of the on-demand resources as time allows. The session I want to tell you about did not address PDCA cycle, or patient safety, or new CMS requirements and how to meet them. The session I want to tell you about addressed gratitude.

The final session of the virtual conference featured Victoria Arlen, EPSN personality and Paralympics champion. At 11 years old, Victoria contracted two rare diseases simultaneously and fell into a mysterious vegetative state. She and her family know now that if doctors had been more aware of what was happening to her some IV steroids would have reversed her condition. However, she explained it was like her body was a breaker box and slowly each switch got flipped and she spent 4 years in this vegetative state, unable to communicate. Even though she was in this vegetative state, she could still hear everything that was going on around her. She says the doctor’s told her parents that she would probably not survive but her parents would not give up on her. Victoria shared that one day it was if the switch for her brain got turned on and she knew she wanted to get better. She started thinking of things for which she was grateful. At first it included things like being alive. She started focusing on the positive instead of the negative. Then, miraculously, she was able to blink her eyes again and was able to communicate with the outside world. Slowly, over time, almost all of the switches in her “breaker box” got flipped and she started making a recovery. However, she was still paralyzed from the waist down and in a wheelchair. After months of intense therapy, she was able to walk again and even competed in “Dancing with the Stars”. Not only is her recovery amazing but her outlook on life is inspiring. It was hard not to get tears in my eyes over the things that she shared.

I don’t think any of us have been where she was but we have all battled our own storms whether personally or with friends/family. She shared that storms don’t last forever. There is always something to be thankful for! She said that when you focus on gratitude you see good things around you to be grateful for. One of the things that stuck with me the most was she told us that one thing that got her through her struggle to recovery was that she knew her story wasn’t over. She was still writing it and she wasn’t going to give the pen to someone else to let them finish her story. Wow! We are in charge of how we handle the storms in life. She mentioned that suffering is not a result of the challenge or problem that we face. Suffering is what we tell ourselves about what might happen. Instead of being negative, we need to find things to be grateful for.

Victoria has a book “Locked In” which gives more details about her ordeal and her amazing comeback. I intend to download it on my Kindle tonight. I have always been a supporter of gratefulness and her talk was a challenge to not let that way of thinking go away.

Maybe I can share with you about some of the other sessions that I attended another time, but I just knew I had to share this session with you! I know I haven’t conveyed her message anywhere close to as well as she did but I hope it does give you something to think about. Instead of thinking of things that you “have” to do, try to see them as things that you “get” to do and be thankful!

Erin Bolton

President Elect

Communications Update

Submitted by: Joel Anderson, GC-MGMT, BBA

Happy Fall,

Fall weather appears to be on it’s way to Arkansas. I can’t wait! I would take fall or spring weather year around if I could! However, we have seasons for a reason! National Healthcare Quality Week is October 19-25, 2025 and will be here before you know it! Join AAHQ in celebrating the dedicated professionals who work tirelessly to ensure high-quality care and patient safety. How does your facility plan to celebrate? The Communications Action Team would love to receive pictures of how your healthcare teams are honoring this monumental week. Please email your pics to andersonj@jrmc.org. We would love to highlight some of your activities in the next quarterly newsletter.

Joel Anderson

Communications Team Lead

Visit: https://www.sepsis.org/get-involved/sepsis-awareness-month/

Arkansas’ Congenital Syphilis Crisis

Arkansas is experiencing a statewide outbreak of syphilis, leading to a dangerous rise in congenital syphilis—when an infected mother passes syphilis to her baby during pregnancy or delivery. Between 2017 and 2023, cases in Arkansas increased fivefold, from 13 to 64, resulting in 23 infant deaths. In 2023 alone, the state reported 896 primary and secondary syphilis cases, ranking 4th highest in the nation.

Why it matters: Nearly half of congenital syphilis cases are linked to delayed or missed testing during pregnancy. An untreated infection can cause miscarriage, preterm delivery, stillbirth, or lifelong complications for infants.

Action for Providers:

Screen all pregnant women at the first prenatal visit, during the 3rd trimester, and again at delivery (per 2024 ACOG guidance).
Treat promptly—both mother and partner(s) to prevent reinfection.
Evaluate and treat newborns at risk to prevent severe outcomes.

AFMC’s Medicaid Quality Improvement team, contracted by Arkansas Medicaid, supports providers through the Congenital Syphilis Screening and Prevention Project, offering guidance to strengthen testing, treatment, and follow-up practices across the state.

For more information, contact mqi@afmc.org.

AAHQ Sponsors

Gold Level Sponsors

American Data Network

Founded in 1994, American Data Network provides clinical, quality, safety and financial data applications and services to healthcare executives, allowing them to better manage costs and care quality, influence physician practice patterns and meet demands for public accountability and disclosure. For more information about ADN and its services, please visit www.americandatanetwork.com.

Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care

For more than 35 years, AFMC has helped improve the quality of healthcare in Arkansas. As the federally designated quality improvement organization (QIO), we work with staff in every health care setting and offer free tools and resources. Together, we’re working to make health care safer, more effective and more efficient. For more information about AFMC’s services, please go to www.afmc.org.

Empower Healthcare Solutions

Founded in 2018, Empower is the largest of four Provider-led Arkansas Shared Saving Entities (PASSE) in Arkansas. Empower is committed to helping members live fuller, healthier lives at home and in their communities. For more information about Empower Healthcare Solutions, please visit https://getempowerhealth.com/