With New Jersey’s gubernatorial primaries next week, the Quality Institute, supported by our members, is finalizing a report that identifies the greatest health care challenges we face and identifies actionable solutions. We will share the report with our members and the candidates soon. We regularly count on the expertise and perspective of our members — and this report is no exception.

Here’s how we put it together. In advance of our spring conference on May 13, Shaping the Future: Health Care Priorities for New Jersey’s Next Governor, we invited our members to anonymously answer a key question: In your view, what is the most urgent health care challenge facing New Jersey today?

The responses revealed seven priorities:

• Primary Care Crisis
• Medicaid Funding Cuts
• Health Care Workforce Shortages
• Mental Health & Substance Use Access
• Affordability and Access
• Reproductive Health Rights
• Systemic Structural Challenges

These topics became the foundation for the table discussions at our conference, where we brought together our members from across New Jersey health care. There were nurses, physicians, philanthropy and nonprofit leaders, consumer patient advocates including Regional Health Hub leaders, health system leaders, health insurance executives, pharmaceutical executives, faculty from medical, nursing and public health schools, technology experts, and many others. Seats were assigned so that all sectors were reflected at each table and ensured that every discussion was representative of our diverse membership.

We asked each table to focus on one or two of the seven identified issues. People asked each other questions, listened, and thoughtfully developed solutions. We are now refining these topics and solutions to share publicly—and directly—with gubernatorial candidates and the public.

One of the most powerful takeaways from this process was how our members approached the issues. They consistently looked beyond their individual roles and organizational interests to consider how we can collectively improve the health system for everyone in New Jersey.

For any members who were not able to join us at our recent conference on health care priorities for the next Governor, if you would like to connect with us on this topic, we would like to hear from you.

We deeply value the expertise of our members and engage them in a variety of ways—through focused work groups, public events, and communications features like our Take Five series. The expertise of our members is critical to our mission, especially now as New Jersey faces likely federal policy changes and possibly deep budget cuts. At the Quality Institute, we are committed to staying ahead of these changes and ensuring our incoming governor is equipped with well-researched, community-informed recommendations. As always, we remain committed to working side-by-side with you, our members and partners, to advance our mission to improve health care for everyone.