Why Competency Standardization Matters for Improvement: An Assessment of the Healthcare Quality Workforce.

Healthcare transformation requires a healthcare quality workforce with the requisite expertise to lead, oversee, and implement positive change within healthcare organizations. The National Association for Healthcare Quality (NAHQ) Competency Framework, which spans 29 competencies across 8 domains of healthcare quality, outlines the specific knowledge and skills needed to advance personal and organizational quality goals. This study describes 1,671 responses to the NAHQ Professional Assessment survey from a diverse group of healthcare quality professionals representative of NAHQ's professional community.