About Us OLD

Our goal is to move the Performance Bell Curve distribution! Through sustained organizational learning, shared knowledge and application of proven methods, Institute for Behavioral Healthcare Improvement (IBHI) seeks to heighten the peak, and reduce the variation between high and low performing organizations. Our target is to move the performance curve higher for the outcome of care experienced by persons and families suffering from mental and substance use problems. See our reference to an article on “The Bell Curve” below.

Dedicated to improving the quality and outcome of behavioral healthcare, IBHI is a not-for-profit, charitable corporation established in 2005 to create more robust, effective quality improvement processes within behavioral healthcare. In 2006, the newly organized Board of Directors established the organizational AIM: To dramatically improve behavioral health care outcomes by creating a high performing national learning organization that invites organizations out of their historical silos. IBHI seeks to encourage a movement that translates a passion for quality improvement into sustained action.

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A seminal paper for IBHI is “The Bell Curve” by Atul Gawande from The New Yorker, December 6, 2004. The author points out the crucial importance of being able to compare the results across systems of care using the experience of patients with cystic fibrosis. The difference in results between the “best” and the “average” or middle of the bell curve distribution for cystic fibrosis patients was a dramatic improvement in longevity! The article shares the journey of discovery, transparency, learning and action necessary to become the best, and to re-shape the performance curve. “The Bell Curve,” is a visionary message for behavioral healthcare.

See also the Reference Library for other key documents, especially work by Donald Berwick, MD, and the web site of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.