The HRSA Health Disparities Collaboratives has a systems-approach to organizational change, which has been applied to clinical, financial, and operational quality improvement.  The HRSA HDC is considering the integration of a collaborative approach to Total Quality Management (TQM) for primary health care.  

Areas of focus for improvement work have included Cancer Screening, Prevention, Diabetes Prevention, Business Case/Redesign, Access, and Perinatal and Patient Safety, as well as improvement in chronic disease care (Diabetes, Asthma, Cardiovascular Disease, Depression).  A pilot Oral Health Collaborative is ongoing. Specific tools, measures and team experiences from the HDC can be found on this site.
 
In 2006, approximately 800 federally qualified community health centers are currently participating in the HDC.  This includes almost 150 health centers that are involved in regional initial learning experiences in the HDC.

Health centers that have successfully implemented change in their organization through initial learning of one topic will then sustain the improvements and spread the methods to reach additional providers and patients for total system transformation.  Tools and information for sustaining and spreading the change are also available on this site.

The wealth of our collective experience is here for you to explore and to adopt. Look around and learn about the organizations that are transforming their systems of care to improve patient health outcomes and organizational sustainability.