FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For Further Information Contact:
Desiree M. Voinche
Manager, Communications and Outreach
voinched@dfmc.org
410-872-9624

Delmarva Foundation's "Courage to Improve III" Conference
Offers Healthcare Providers Unique Opportunity to Share Best Practices

Easton, MD, November 9, 2005 - Delmarva Foundation, Medicare’s Quality Improvement Organization for Maryland and the District of Columbia, will host its third annual conference to provide healthcare professionals from the Mid- Atlantic the opportunity to share best practices and strategies for improving the quality of patient care within hospitals, home health agencies, and nursing homes. The Courage to Improve III: Best Practices and Transparency in Quality Improvement conference will be held at Martin’s Crosswinds in Greenbelt on Wednesday, November 9 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Over 500 healthcare CEOs, administrators, and medical staff have registered to attend the third annual version of the conference. The conference will provide a unique forum for healthcare providers to learn about best practices and lessons learned from other local facilities that have achieved high performance on national publicly reported quality indicators. These indicators compare the quality of care provided by local health organizations against national guidelines for excellence.

"Delmarva Foundation’s believes that our partnerships with local healthcare providers are helping transform the way care is delivered in this area. This best practices conference has proven to be an effective method to help find and share the most successful ways to improve the indicators" said Maulik Joshi, DrPH, President and CEO of the Delmarva Foundation. "It is our hope that each provider from across the settings will learn at least one innovative or unique method for improving patient care during the conference so that we can reach our goal of ensuring that each patient receives the right care, every time.”

In addition to a keynote speech from Francois de Brantes, MBA, Program Leader at General Electric, who will speak about the use of employer incentives to change behavior, this year’s conference will also include an expert panel on pay for performance initiatives in hospitals, home health agencies, nursing homes, and physician offices. The conference will also feature a variety of panels addressing topics such as culture change, transformation of care, reduction of acute care hospitalizations, and data validation.

For more information, please visit www.delmarvafoundation.org

About Delmarva Foundation
Delmarva Foundation is a national, not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving healthcare quality in over 20 states. Since 1973, Delmarva has assisted in improving care in hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies, medical practices and health plans. Delmarva performs quality improvement, quality assurance, utilization review, external quality review and Program Safeguard activities. The company's corporate headquarters are located in Easton, Maryland with other offices in Baltimore, Maryland; Washington, DC; Columbia, South Carolina; Tampa, Florida; and Tallahassee, Florida. For more information, please visit Delmarva Foundation on the web at www.delmarvafoundation.org.