Through experience, the National Quality Center (NQC) has learned that Ryan White Program-funded HIV providers face many challenges in developing sound quality management programs, including unfamiliarity with quality improvement concepts, lack of staff, resources, and organizational barriers. Through the engagement of grantees in two HAB-sponsored national collaboratives, an approach how to establish Part B-specific quality management programs has been developed.

The NQC Guide is designed to help Part B-funded states and territories to initiate and/or refine their quality management activities. For State Departments of Health that are unfamiliar to the quality management, the Guide provides useful information on how to gain buy-in from leadership and staff as well as how to initiate quality improvement activities. For more advanced programs, the Guide provides best practices from other states and territories in order to strengthen current efforts.

The Guide does not provide a single, “cookie cutter” approach to implementing a quality management program; instead, it focuses on the lessons learned from the NQC Collaboratives and captures the combined expertise and accomplishments of participating Part B programs, successes from on-site consultations, and the knowledge of NQC staff and consultants who guide Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program grantees.