Effective Meeting Management: An Essential Skill of the HQP

Hospital quality professionals (HQPs) often find themselves participating in numerous meetings within the hospital. In fact, as part of the roles and responsibilities of the HQP, they will chair (or share leadership) a half dozen of these hospital-wide committees. Obviously, managing these monthly (or quarterly) meetings takes significant time and energy. Some committees are required by accreditation bodies, while others are simply a product of historical operations and "we have always done it this way" mentality.

However, there are essential questions the HQP must bear in mind in order to determine whether the committee is effective.

Does the committee have a clear purpose (charter) and scope of work? Is the membership lean and appropriate or does it contain superfluous members that provide little value? Does the committee efficiently guide work product forward, aimed at achieving strategic objectives? Is the frequency of meetings aligned with the needs of the hospital?

If there is more than one "no" to this set of questions then stop . . . reevaluate. . . and consider discontinuing the work. Anathema to quality is meeting, just for meeting sake.

One of the worst possible offenses that the HQP could contribute to is wasting clinicians' time on ineffective meetings and discussions. Every minute extracted, from a clinician's schedule of caring for patients, should be prized and properly respected. Start on time, end on time. Otherwise, the HQP will have additional challenges in obtaining buy-in on core quality matters.

In synthesis, the HQP should incorporate the skill of effective meeting management into their repertoire. Please click on the underlined link, above, for further instruction.