ISQua Board Meeting & Retreat 2018

Report from ISQua President, Wendy Nicklin

The ISQua Board met in Dublin, Ireland from 4th - 6th March 2018.  What did we accomplish on your behalf?

We spent one day focusing on Board Development.   As an organisation that focuses on quality and safety improvement in health and social care, it is important that the Board identifies areas for improvement in order to enhance our own effectiveness in enabling achievement of the mission and strategy.  We identified areas to improve our processes from which we will develop strategies to strengthen our governance effectiveness. 

It was also a valuable team building day.   Considering the current process of election and/or appointment to the Board, we experience up to a 50% turnover every 2 years.  Added to this, while the Board meetings are held at minimum every two months, we only meet face-to-face twice a year.   Thus building a sense of team takes time.  This session proved to be a valuable team building mechanism.  At the AGM in September we will provide you with details on the governance process work completed or underway, on your behalf, to contribute to improving our effectiveness.

At the Board meeting, we focused on some proposed amendments to the Memorandum and Articles of Association and spent considerable time on the Strategy for 2018-2020.    All Board members were engaged and enthusiastic as we discussed how the Strategy might be further strengthened and provided input to both prioritization and clarity of focus.  Many excellent initiatives continue to develop and realize benefits such as the networks, communities of practice, Lower and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC), accreditation, events and education programmes.  In January, we welcomed Sara Yaron as our new Person Centred Care Honorary Advisor on the Board.  You will witness further steps being taken to ensure person-centred care permeates ISQua; that it is evident in all that we do.    Effectiveness is all about partnerships – relationships with members, stakeholders and others continue to be optimised. There is much to do while respecting limited resources, both financial and human.   Responsibly moving the Strategy forward in this reality is a challenge but it is achievable.  Peter will provide further details on the strategy within next month's newsletter.  

We are committed to raising the bar and increasing our value globally as an international organisation, towards enabling improvement of health and social care.   Under the capable leadership of Peter Lachman and the team, significant progress will be made that demonstrate the growth and impact of ISQua.  

It is an honour to be President of ISQua and to work with the Board comprised of international health care leaders that are fully committed to the success of ISQua.  To Peter Lachman and his team, our sincerest thank you and appreciation for his leadership.   The impact and profile of ISQua globally is accelerating.

Thank you for your commitment to travel this journey with us and to be a partner in enabling the improvement of health and social care globally.