Employee Engagement in Quality Improvement and Patient Sociodemographic Characteristics in FQHCs

Abstract

Improving the quality of care is of paramount importance in federally qualified health centers (FQHCs). One strategy is to engage frontline employees by encouraging them to generate and share ideas for quality improvement. In a national sample of 54 FQHCs, we explore the relationship of employee engagement in quality improvement—via participation in innovation contests that sought ideas to improve patient care and offered opportunities to vote on shared ideas—and patients’ sociodemographic characteristics. Although all FQHCs deliver care to underserved populations, we find considerable variation in patients’ socioeconomic status in our sample. Furthermore, employees in FQHCs that serve a higher percentage of patients living in poverty and/or a higher percentage of Hispanic patients were less likely to participate in idea submission and voting. Our findings suggest that sociodemographic characteristics of the patients served in FQHCs may be important determinants of success when implementing quality improvement initiatives.