About Robert Wood Johnson Foundation:

The mission of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is to improve the health and health care of all Americans. Their goal is clear: To help Americans lead healthier lives and get the care they need.

About Aligning Forces for Quality:

RWJF's Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q) initiative uses a great deal of resources, expertise, and training to create real results in healthcare quality. AF4Q is an effort to lift the overall quality of healthcare in targeted communities, reduce racial and ethnic disparities, and provide models for national reform.

AF4Q asks the people who get care, give care, and pay for care to work together toward common goals that lead to better healthcare.  Over $300 million have been committed to communities, which makes it the largest effort of its kind ever undertaken by a U.S. philanthropy.

For more information about  the national efforts, visit AF4Q

Aligning Forces for Quality in Maine

Quality Counts leads the AF4Q initiative in Maine, in collaboration with the Maine Health Management Coalition and the Maine Quality Forum.  Consistent with the national goals, efforts by Quality Counts are focused on three key areas:

1. Performance Measurement & Public Reporting
2. Quality Improvement
3. Consumer Engagement

Additionally, Quality Counts places a special focus on improving the important relationship between primary care providers and patients/families, nurse leadership in hospitals, and improving the quality of health care received by disparate populations.

Read Aligning Forces for Quality in Maine, A Community Snapshot - 2009

Quality Improvement

There are many quality improvement initiatives underway as part of the Quality Counts.  Key efforts underway at this time include:

• Ambulatory Quality Improvement Activities - We are working with primary care physicians to improve the care of patients with chronic conditions, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, asthma, and depression - see information on our Quality Counts Ambulatory Learning Community section of our website.

• Hospital-based Quality Improvement Activities- We are working to support the excellent work that many Maine hospitals and hospital leaders are already undertaking to improve the quality of hospital-based care, and share best-practices throughout the state.  Some of these efforts include:
  • National Surgical Quality Improvement Plan (NSQIP) – Improving the quality of surgical procedures is an important step in improving healthcare quality.  The Maine AF4Q team is supporting efforts of the Maine Chapter of the American College of Surgeons in their effort to encourage all Maine hospitals to use the NSQIP program to make important changes that will lead to better patient safety. Learn more
  • Transforming Care At Bedside (TCAB) – This effort focuses on the role that nurses can play in improving the quality of care patients receive. Learn more
  • Pressure Ulcer Prevention – Preventing pressure ulcers not only improves the patient experience, but also helps to reduce the use of expensive healthcare resources. Learn more.

Consumer Engagement

One of the major goals of Quality Counts is to get patients and consumers to take a more active role in their care and to make better healthcare choices.  There are three goals for the consumer engagement work:

• Consumers understand what quality is
• Consumers use quality information to make healthcare choices
• Consumers become more involved in managing their health

To reach these goals, Quality Counts has created workgroups for consumers, employers, policy makers, and other health leaders.  The Consumer Engagement Leadership Team (CELT) is made up of some of Maine’s leading organizations such as AARP, the Maine Education Association Benefits Trust, the Office of MaineCare Services, the Maine Peoples Alliance and the City of Portland’s Public Health Division to name a few.  The CELT works together with Quality Counts to create materials and distribute messages for consumers that will help communicate the consumer engagement goals.  If your organization is interested in joining the CELT, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Quality Counts is also looking for consumers and citizens who are interested in learning more about healthcare quality and working on projects designed to help improve the quality of care in Maine.   Join our consumer engagement communication list by signing up here, or e-mailing This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .