The San Francisco Quality Culture Series (SFQCS) was as a year-long collaborative learning program for clinic leadership teams aimed at building their improvement capacity and skills as leaders of dynamic primary care practices. Twenty-one clinic teams completed the program, which ran from January through December, 2011.

Teams participated in eight one-day learning sessions, completed a project related to either access improvement, patient experience, or preparing for electronic health record implementation, and worked with an improvement coach to optimize their ability to apply the content and trainings to their clinics.

SFQCS was a transformative experience for clinic leadership teams. The excellent attendance rate, active engagement and program ratings across clinic participants demonstrated the high value they placed on their experience. This perceived value also translated to real changes. Almost all clinics reported measurable improvements in their clinic’s capacity for quality, the majority of teams saw improvements in team effectiveness and engagement scores, and almost all clinics saw improvement in at least one project measure. In addition, leadership teams continue to bring the content home and report increased engagement and participation in quality improvement activities across clinic staff.

SFQCS was developed through a partnership between San Francisco Health Plan, San Francisco Community Clinic Consortium, San Francisco Department of Public Health, and Center for the Health Professions. SFQCS was funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation with additional support from San Francisco Health Plan and Healthy San Francisco.