---
url: https://www.adoptionlab.ai/resources/quality-improvement-resources/
title: "Quality improvement resources | AdoptionLab.AI"
description: "A curated list of quality improvement resources for critical access hospitals, health centers, CMHCs, and SDOH nonprofits, with the New England layer included."
generated: 2026-09-23T15:58:38.002Z
---Resources
# Quality improvement resources worth your time
The best of the field, with the New England layer no national list includes.
Most of what a safety-net organization needs to run quality improvement already exists, and much of it is free. This is the short list we point clients to, grouped by who it serves, with a note on what each one covers and what it leaves out. We don't compete with any of these. We sit alongside them.
Last reviewed September 2026. Descriptions are ours; the resources belong to the organizations named. Know one we're missing? Email [mhumer@adoptionlab.ai](mailto:mhumer@adoptionlab.ai).
## Start here
If you're new to the role or new to this list, these eight cover the most ground.
### The Model for Improvement (IHI)
For: Everyone
The three questions and the PDSA cycle that most healthcare improvement work runs on, explained plainly by the organization that popularized them. Start here if your team has never had a shared method.
What it doesn't cover: Who sponsors the change, what staff need to hear, or what keeps the new way in place after the test.
[Visit →](https://www.ihi.org/resources/how-improve-model-improvement)
### Rural Health Information Hub: health care quality
For: Everyone
A federally funded guide to quality programs, measures, and funding for rural providers, with a resource library and a state-by-state view. The best single starting point for a rural quality lead who is new to the role.
What it doesn't cover: How to get a change adopted; it is a reference, not a method.
[Visit →](https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/topics/health-care-quality)
### The Flex Program (HRSA)
For: Critical access hospitals
The federal program that funds every state's support for critical access hospitals, including quality improvement, quality reporting, and benchmarking. Your state Flex coordinator is the person to call first about any quality project.
What it doesn't cover: The people side. Flex coaches the measures and the method; adoption is left to the hospital.
[Visit →](https://hrsa.gov/rural-health/grants/rural-hospitals/flex)
### MBQIP resources (TASC)
For: Critical access hospitals
The Technical Assistance and Services Center's hub for the Medicare Beneficiary Quality Improvement Project: reporting guides, measure fact sheets, the CAH quality improvement guide and toolkit, and the MBQIP Monthly newsletter.
What it doesn't cover: Why a measure that improved during a project slides back afterward.
[Visit →](https://www.ruralcenter.org/programs/tasc/mbqip)
### HRSA Health Center Program data and reporting (UDS)
For: Health centers
The federal source for Uniform Data System definitions, national and state comparisons, adjusted quartile rankings, and the Community Health Quality Recognition badges. Everything your UDS report is measured against lives here.
What it doesn't cover: The four-role handoff problem behind most stalled UDS measures.
[Visit →](https://bphc.hrsa.gov/datareporting/)
### CCBHC resources (SAMHSA)
For: Community mental health centers
The federal certification criteria, quality measures, and program guidance for Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics, straight from the agency that sets them.
What it doesn't cover: How to get thirty independent-minded clinicians to change something inside the therapy hour.
[Visit →](https://www.samhsa.gov/certified-community-behavioral-health-clinics)
### ROMA: Results Oriented Management and Accountability (NASCSP)
For: SDOH nonprofits
The results-based planning and accountability framework community action agencies use under CSBG, with background documents and an introduction for boards. Its cycle of assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation maps closely to PDSA.
What it doesn't cover: How to get frontline staff to adopt a new intake or outcomes practice once the plan is approved.
[Visit →](https://nascsp.org/csbg/csbg-resources/roma/)
### New England Rural Health Association
For: Everyone
The only regional rural health association in the country, with a 400-person annual conference each November that brings critical access hospitals, health centers, and behavioral health together in one room.
What it doesn't cover: Nothing to cover; it is a network, and a good one.
[Visit →](https://www.nerha.org)
## The full library
Everything we've reviewed, including the eight above. Filter by topic, type, or continuing education, or search by name.
Filter
Topic All PDSADMAICChange managementMeasurementLeadershipFunding and reportingAI literacy Type All CourseToolkitGuideWebinar seriesCommunityDataDirectory Cost All Free Paid Offers CE credits Search
Showing 32 of 32
Nothing matches. Clear the filters or [email us](mailto:mhumer@adoptionlab.ai) the resource you were looking for.
Clear
### CCBHC resources (SAMHSA)
For: Community mental health centers
The federal certification criteria, quality measures, and program guidance for Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics, straight from the agency that sets them.
What it doesn't cover: How to get thirty independent-minded clinicians to change something inside the therapy hour.
- Guide
- Measurement
- Funding and reporting
[Visit →](https://www.samhsa.gov/certified-community-behavioral-health-clinics)
### HRSA Health Center Program data and reporting (UDS)
For: Health centers
The federal source for Uniform Data System definitions, national and state comparisons, adjusted quartile rankings, and the Community Health Quality Recognition badges. Everything your UDS report is measured against lives here.
What it doesn't cover: The four-role handoff problem behind most stalled UDS measures.
- Data
- Measurement
- Funding and reporting
[Visit →](https://bphc.hrsa.gov/datareporting/)
### MBQIP resources (TASC)
For: Critical access hospitals
The Technical Assistance and Services Center's hub for the Medicare Beneficiary Quality Improvement Project: reporting guides, measure fact sheets, the CAH quality improvement guide and toolkit, and the MBQIP Monthly newsletter.
What it doesn't cover: Why a measure that improved during a project slides back afterward.
- Toolkit
- Measurement
- Funding and reporting
[Visit →](https://www.ruralcenter.org/programs/tasc/mbqip)
### New England Rural Health Association
For: Everyone
The only regional rural health association in the country, with a 400-person annual conference each November that brings critical access hospitals, health centers, and behavioral health together in one room.
What it doesn't cover: Nothing to cover; it is a network, and a good one.
- Community
- Leadership
[Visit →](https://www.nerha.org)
### ROMA: Results Oriented Management and Accountability (NASCSP)
For: SDOH nonprofits
The results-based planning and accountability framework community action agencies use under CSBG, with background documents and an introduction for boards. Its cycle of assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation maps closely to PDSA.
What it doesn't cover: How to get frontline staff to adopt a new intake or outcomes practice once the plan is approved.
- Guide
- PDSA
- Measurement
- Funding and reporting
[Visit →](https://nascsp.org/csbg/csbg-resources/roma/)
### Rural Health Information Hub: health care quality
For: Everyone
A federally funded guide to quality programs, measures, and funding for rural providers, with a resource library and a state-by-state view. The best single starting point for a rural quality lead who is new to the role.
What it doesn't cover: How to get a change adopted; it is a reference, not a method.
- Guide
- Measurement
- Funding and reporting
[Visit →](https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/topics/health-care-quality)
### The Flex Program (HRSA)
For: Critical access hospitals
The federal program that funds every state's support for critical access hospitals, including quality improvement, quality reporting, and benchmarking. Your state Flex coordinator is the person to call first about any quality project.
What it doesn't cover: The people side. Flex coaches the measures and the method; adoption is left to the hospital.
- Guide
- Measurement
- Funding and reporting
[Visit →](https://hrsa.gov/rural-health/grants/rural-hospitals/flex)
### The Model for Improvement (IHI)
For: Everyone
The three questions and the PDSA cycle that most healthcare improvement work runs on, explained plainly by the organization that popularized them. Start here if your team has never had a shared method.
What it doesn't cover: Who sponsors the change, what staff need to hear, or what keeps the new way in place after the test.
- Guide
- PDSA
- Measurement
[Visit →](https://www.ihi.org/resources/how-improve-model-improvement)
### AHRQ practice improvement resources
For: Health centers
Federal, public-domain tools on practice facilitation and practice transformation, including a facilitation curriculum whose modules on root cause analysis, workflow redesign, and measurement work as a QI 101 for any clinic team.
What it doesn't cover: Sustainment after the facilitator leaves; the materials assume an outside facilitator drives the work.
- Toolkit
- Free
- PDSA
- Measurement
[Visit →](https://www.ahrq.gov/topics/practice-improvement.html)
### AI for Everyone: Critical AI Literacy
For: Everyone
A free, two-hour, self-paced course from a university psychology department on how language AI works, where it is strong, where it fails, and the dependence, energy, and privacy questions worth asking before you rely on it. Completion certificate; no product being sold.
What it doesn't cover: It covers AI literacy, not how to bring AI into a workflow or a team. That's what the GenAI+ Belts do.
- Course
- Free
- AI literacy
[Visit →](https://explore.acadiau.ca/product?catalog=AI-Literacy)
### ASQ Quality Resources
For: Everyone
The American Society for Quality's library of tool explanations, from fishbone diagrams and Pareto charts to control charts, written for practitioners in any industry. Useful when a belt program's jargon needs a plain definition.
What it doesn't cover: Healthcare context, and anything about adoption.
- Guide
- DMAIC
- Measurement
[Visit →](https://asq.org/quality-resources)
### Bi-State Primary Care Association
For: Health centers
The primary care association for both states, holding the HRSA cooperative agreement to provide training and technical assistance to safety-net providers, with a clinical quality symposium and an annual conference each June.
What it doesn't cover: Change management as a discipline.
- Community
- Leadership
- Measurement
[Visit →](https://bistatepca.org)
### CCBHC Success Center (National Council for Mental Wellbeing)
For: Community mental health centers
The National Council's implementation hub: free training and technical assistance for SAMHSA expansion grantees, office hours, readiness assessments, and consulting for a fee.
What it doesn't cover: Sustainment after the consultant leaves, and the people side of measurement-based care.
- Webinar series
- Measurement
- Leadership
[Visit →](https://www.thenationalcouncil.org/our-work/ccbhc)
### Community Action Partnership
For: SDOH nonprofits
The national association for community action agencies, with training, peer learning, and technical assistance on leadership, organizational standards, and results-oriented management.
What it doesn't cover: Change management as a discipline.
- Community
- Leadership
- Funding and reporting
[Visit →](https://communityactionpartnership.com)
### Continuum of Care program (HUD Exchange)
For: SDOH nonprofits
HUD's home for the Continuum of Care program: system performance measures, program requirements, and the guidance your regional CoC reports against.
What it doesn't cover: The change management behind a new coordinated entry process or a merged program.
- Guide
- Measurement
- Funding and reporting
[Visit →](https://www.hudexchange.info/programs/coc/)
### Free Lean Management Course
For: Everyone
Lean principles, the types of waste, and the core tools, in about five hours of self-paced video with a completion certificate. A good first look for teams who use PDSA but haven't seen Lean.
- Course
- Free
- Measurement
[Visit →](https://www.simplilearn.com/introduction-to-lean-management-basics-skillup)
### Free Six Sigma Course: Green Belt fundamentals
For: Everyone
DMAIC and the Green Belt toolkit at an introductory level, about seven hours of self-paced video with a completion certificate. Pairs directly with the DMAIC map on this site.
- Course
- Free
- DMAIC
[Visit →](https://www.simplilearn.com/learn-six-sigma-basics-free-course-skillup)
### HRSA Health Center Program Compliance Manual
For: Health centers
The official guide to the requirements health centers must meet, chapter by chapter, including the quality improvement and quality assurance program.
What it doesn't cover: Building an improvement culture beyond the minimum requirements.
- Guide
- Funding and reporting
[Visit →](https://bphc.hrsa.gov/compliance/compliance-manual)
### IHI Open School
For: Everyone
More than thirty short online courses in improvement, safety, and leadership, with a basic certificate available and three free sample courses to try first. Individual subscriptions run about $349 a year; students and residents get access free.
What it doesn't cover: Applying the courses to your organization's live project, or the people side beyond one leadership course.
- Course
- Paid
- PDSA
- Measurement
- Leadership
- CE credits
[Visit →](https://www.ihi.org/education/ihi-open-school)
### IHI QI Essentials Toolkit
For: Everyone
Templates and short instructions for the core improvement tools, including cause and effect diagrams, driver diagrams, flowcharts, Pareto charts, PDSA worksheets, and run and control charts.
What it doesn't cover: Who needs to be on board, or what keeps a change in place after the test.
- Toolkit
- PDSA
- Measurement
[Visit →](https://www.ihi.org/resources/tools/quality-improvement-essentials-toolkit)
### Maine Office of Rural Health and Primary Care
For: Critical access hospitals
Maine's State Office of Rural Health, Flex Program, and SHIP grants, including the quality network where Maine's critical access hospitals review MBQIP data together.
What it doesn't cover: The people side; the network coaches the measures.
- Guide
- Measurement
- Funding and reporting
[Visit →](https://www.maine.gov/dhhs/mecdc/public-health-systems/rhpc/)
### Maine Primary Care Association
For: Health centers
Training, technical assistance, and an annual conference each October for Maine's health center network, the largest independent primary care network in the state.
What it doesn't cover: Change management as a discipline.
- Community
- Leadership
[Visit →](https://mepca.org)
### National Association of Community Health Centers
For: Health centers
The national association for health centers, with training, policy updates, and quality resources aimed at the Health Center Program's requirements.
What it doesn't cover: State and regional specifics; that is your primary care association’s job.
- Community
- Leadership
- Funding and reporting
[Visit →](https://www.nachc.org)
### New Hampshire Rural Health and Primary Care
For: Critical access hospitals, Health centers
The state office that runs New Hampshire's Flex Program, the Small Rural Hospital Improvement Program, and the State Office of Rural Health, and serves as the liaison between rural providers and DHHS programs.
What it doesn't cover: Behavioral health and housing providers, who have their own state channels.
- Guide
- Funding and reporting
[Visit →](https://dhhs.nh.gov/programs-services/health-care/rural-health-primary-care)
### NH Community Behavioral Health Association
For: Community mental health centers
The association representing New Hampshire's community mental health centers and leading the state's Rural Health Transformation work on CCBHC adoption, and co-host of the annual NH Behavioral Health Summit each December.
What it doesn't cover: The people side of the CCBHC transition inside each center.
- Community
- Leadership
[Visit →](https://nhcbha.org)
### Rural Health Information Hub toolkits
For: Critical access hospitals
Step-by-step, evidence-based toolkits for building rural health programs, each with guidance on planning, funding, evaluation, and sustainability.
What it doesn't cover: Changing how an existing team works; the toolkits focus on starting new programs.
- Toolkit
- Funding and reporting
[Visit →](https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/toolkits)
### SAMHSA Evidence-Based Practices Resource Center
For: Community mental health centers
A searchable collection of guides, toolkits, and implementation resources for evidence-based mental health and substance use practices.
What it doesn't cover: How to get clinicians to adopt a practice once it has been chosen.
- Guide
- Measurement
[Visit →](https://www.samhsa.gov/resource-search/ebp)
### Six Sigma Green Belt Specialization
For: Everyone
The next step after the Yellow Belt: four courses on the DMAIC phases at Green Belt depth, with a capstone. Paid, with financial aid available. Aligned to the ASQ Green Belt handbook.
- Course
- Paid
- DMAIC
[Visit →](https://www.coursera.org/specializations/six-sigma-green-belt)
### Six Sigma Yellow Belt Specialization
For: Everyone
Four university-taught courses covering Six Sigma and Lean at the Yellow Belt level, about four weeks at ten hours a week, ending in a capstone project. Paid, with financial aid available. Take this before the Green Belt specialization.
- Course
- Paid
- DMAIC
[Visit →](https://www.coursera.org/specializations/six-sigma-fundamentals)
### State Flex program profiles and coordinators (TASC)
For: Critical access hospitals
One page per state with the Flex and SHIP program contacts. If you don't know your coordinator's name, this is where you find it.
What it doesn't cover: Nothing to cover; it is a directory.
- Directory
- Funding and reporting
[Visit →](https://www.ruralcenter.org/tasc/flexprofile)
### Stratis Health rural quality improvement technical assistance
For: Critical access hospitals
The HRSA-funded technical assistance program behind much of the MBQIP support, including a national cohort of critical access hospital QI mentors who have done the work themselves.
What it doesn't cover: Change management as a discipline; the focus is data, measures, and improvement strategies.
- Community
- PDSA
- Measurement
[Visit →](https://stratishealth.org)
### TeamSTEPPS
For: Everyone
AHRQ's evidence-based teamwork system for health care: free curricula, pocket tools, and training materials on communication, leadership, situation monitoring, and mutual support.
What it doesn't cover: Managing a specific change through adoption; it builds teamwork skills rather than a plan for one change.
- Toolkit
- Free
- Change management
- Leadership
[Visit →](https://www.ahrq.gov/teamstepps/index.html)
## None of these cover the people side.
They coach the method, the measures, and the reporting, and they do it well. What they leave to you is sponsorship, communication, training, resistance, and reinforcement. That is what the Quality Improvement modules add.
[See how the modules work →](/quality-improvement) [Let's chat](mailto:mhumer@adoptionlab.ai?subject=Let%27s%20chat%20(AdoptionLab.AI))