Ace the CPHQ Exam: Study Smart, Not Hard

Passing the Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ) certification exam isn’t difficult. Persons with appropriate experience in healthcare can achieve a great score, and do so efficiently, by concentrating their efforts on the material emphasized in the exam.

The CPHQ exam is like a game.

From the outset, you’ll need a good game plan and objectives that are SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Trackable. Only then can you execute the plan with precision to pass the exam.

Simple, isn’t it? 😉

Developing a great strategy and methodically implementing it are signature characteristics of my consulting firm Teh & Associates. In our series of CPHQ exam tips, we’ll guide you in creating your own game plan to ace the CPHQ exam!

This article discusses an approach that should save you many hours of exam preparation time.

The CPHQ Certification Exam in a Nutshell

Let’s first review some details about the CPHQ exam. It’s a computer-based, multiple-choice question (MCQ) exam that assesses your knowledge about healthcare quality management. The examination aims to test “generic concepts that can be applied to any healthcare setting globally”. You’ll have 140 questions to complete in 3 hours – 125 questions are used for calculating your score, another 15 are “pre-test questions” – the latter are questions that don’t contribute to your score but are being evaluated for possible inclusion in the exam in the future.

The Healthcare Quality Certification Commission (HQCC), which sets the exam questions, claims that there is no way to distinguish between the “real” and pre-test questions; I disagree – pre-test questions tend to stand out like sore thumbs. With some training and practice, I believe most people will be able to tell the difference.

The CPHQ Exam Content Outline

Every three years, the HQCC conducts a survey of healthcare quality professionals to better understand the tasks that they perform

cphq exam
Until 2016, the Healthcare Quality Certification Board (HQCB), now called the Healthcare Quality Certification Commission (HQCC) conducted a practice analysis survey every three years. I participated in such surveys between 2006 and 2016.

Each question on the exam is linked to one of the tasks identified on the practice analysis. The tasks fall into one of the following four broad categories:

  • Organizational Leadership (35 items; 28%)
  • Health Data Analytics (30 items; 24%)
  • Performance and Process Improvement (40 items; 32%)
  • Patient Safety (20 items; 16%)

These four main categories above follow the current CPHQ exam content outline (i.e. the one effective from January 2018 till present update, i.e. October 11, 2020). These categories have been called other (similar) things in the past, e.g. “Management and Leadership” instead of “Organizational Leadership”, “Information Management” instead of “Health Data Analytics”, “Performance Measurement and Improvement” instead of “Performance and Process Improvement.” I wouldn’t worry too much about the semantics.

For each question, one of three different “cognitive levels” will be required for a response: recall (23% of the questions in each category), application (57%), and analysis (20%). Here’s the HQCC’s description of each question type:

Recall questions test the candidate’s knowledge of specific facts and concepts. Application questions require the candidate to interpret or apply information to a situation. Analysis questions test the candidate’s ability to evaluate, problem solve or integrate a variety of information and/or judgment into a meaningful whole.

(Fun fact: The HQCB/HQCC has left the wording of the definitions of these terms exactly the same in more than 15 years!)

Eligibility Requirements

Unlike many other professional certification programs, anyone can sit – but not necessarily pass – the exam; there are no eligibility requirements. This is what the HQCC has got to say about eliminating barriers to certification, such as minimum education and/or experience requirements:

After years of extensive experience in testing research and development and after observing the extraordinarily diverse backgrounds of exceptional candidates who have been successful on the examination and as CPHQs, the Board is confident that the carefully crafted international CPHQ examination will differentiate between candidates who are able to demonstrate competence and those who are not.

(Again, the wording of this part of the Candidate Examination Handbook has not altered for more than 15 years.)

Too good to be true? Hardly.

After many years of working with healthcare quality professionals throughout the world – both CPHQs and non-CPHQs – I tend to believe the HQCC’s assertion: the exam is sufficiently robust to tell who is CPHQ material.

Applying the Pareto Principle in Your CPHQ Exam Preparation

Let’s face it: most of us have neither the time nor energy to read everything listed in the CPHQ content outline.

Some may have sufficient practical experience in the field of healthcare quality to cover gaps in theoretical knowledge.

But many others aren’t that fortunate. In fact, I know of some individuals who are pursuing CPHQ certification so that they can land a quality job, with which they can subsequently gain more healthcare quality experience. A bit of a chicken-and-egg quandary.

The Pareto Principle

But here’s the good news: we can use the Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 Rule, to focus on the major components of the exam, thereby giving you the highest possible return for your investment in study time and other resources.

Application and Analysis Questions

More than 75% of the exam will consist of application and analysis questions. Furthermore, as the HQCC states, the exam tests “generic concepts”, not academic minutiae (over which some people become needlessly concerned). This means plenty of rote learning isn’t going to help much.

Answers to application and analysis questions tend to be matters of judgment. In our training, we emphasize key concepts, give lots of examples and pose questions that make participants think about how to analyze various scenarios and how to apply the quality principles that they’ve learnt in the context of these scenarios. We think this approach is a preferable way of preparing for application and analysis questions on this exam.

Needless to say, persons who have appropriate experience in healthcare (in terms of both duration and type) tend to fare better for these question types. However, with exercises aimed at “fine-tuning” our trainees’ thought processes in quality management, we have found that relatively inexperienced individuals can also do very well.

Tasks Associated with Performance and Process Improvement

Most of the questions will be in these three categories: Organizational Leadership, Health Data Analytics, and Performance and Process Improvement. Don’t divide your study time equally among the four categories. You should probably spend most of your study/reading time on Performance and Process Improvement (which represents the largest category of the exam content), particularly if you’re not familiar with the tasks listed in the exam content outline under this category.

On the other hand, if you have already mastered the tasks associated with Performance and Process Improvement, you probably should redirect your attention to the other categories.

Unfamiliar Tasks

Review the examination content outline and identify those tasks that you are (a) lacking experience in, or (b) unfamiliar with. You should spend more time on these tasks compared to others in which you are adept.

Remember the Law of Diminishing Returns?

Well, it applies here as well: you are unlikely to learn much more (or improve your score significantly) if you are already competent in a particular area.

Careful Selection of What to Study

Also, within each category, there are things that you absolutely need to know (and therefore read) and other stuff that is superfluous. Knowing what items to study within each of the four major categories is key to succeeding in the CPHQ exam in the shortest possible time frame.

In our series of CPHQ exam tips, we’ll define and discuss the most important concepts that you need to know for the exam.

Conclusion

Preparation for the CPHQ exam requires work, including a substantial amount of reading. You are expected to have working knowledge of “everything” in the exam content outline but you need not read up on every task.

By focusing your energy on the most crucial elements of the CPHQ exam (e.g. application and analysis questions, Performance and Process Improvement, tasks unfamiliar to you), you’ll give yourself a great chance of doing well for the exam with a relatively modest investment of time and effort.

Here’s to your CPHQ exam success!

Andy Teh, CPHQ
Full-time Healthcare Quality Consultant and Professional CPHQ Coach


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31 Comments

    1. @Lohia – Thanks for your comment! We’ll certainly continue to offer materials to help folks become certified. You can expect to receive a link to some CPHQ exam practice questions in a couple of days.

  1. I shared ur website with my friends who r looking forward to take the exam. Im glad to find such a website with online CPHQ material. thank you 🙂

  2. So good to finally hear that someone can put this information into terms that I can understand. I would love to receive your sample questions. Thank you!

    1. Hi Sally, You can try our CPHQ exam practice quiz. However, for greatest bang for buck in a limited time frame, I would suggest you join our membership site and attempt more than 700 practice questions – there are hints in the explanations to our answers (for some questions) that will raise your score. Good luck!

  3. Looking for study materials for CPHQ exam, any suggestions thanks! Was very nervous about this as I am new to it. thank you!

    1. @Erica Scarborough – That’s a great question. I stopped dispensing one-size-fits-all advice several years ago. The amount and type of resources you need to adequately prepare for the CPHQ exam largely depends on your knowledge and skills relative to the current CPHQ exam content outline. This article contains some questions you might like to ask yourself. In general, a good starting point is to identify your knowledge gaps – CPHQ Tutor is useful for this purpose – and to work on closing them first.

  4. Hello,
    Can you send the Material to prepare the exam?
    Also, I’m looking to CPHQ training course if available?

    1. @Ahmad Al-Najjar – Most of our CPHQ exam prep materials are only available to our private CPHQ coaching students. Our students also use materials available online through the CPHQ Tutor website, which is accessible by anyone. The CPHQ Exam Preparation Workshops scheduled for 2020 have sold out(!). I’ve placed your name on a waiting list – someone will get in touch with you in case there are any cancellations.

    1. @Shade – Due to the social distancing guidelines and travel restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have canceled our live training programs scheduled for the remainder of 2020. We don’t offer a structured online training course at this time. Our (live) CPHQ exam preparation workshops to be held in 2021 will be announced in the fourth quarter of this year.

  5. I am interested in the exam materials and study guide with questions and answers.
    Thanks alot for your support and cooperation
    Please if you have any useful msterials or Past papers ,Kindly Pass it to me ..
    ema21_5@hotmail.com
    Thanks and regards

    1. Hi Jessica,

      Our fees for private coaching vary according to the needs of the candidate and the resources they require. We determine the latter from a preliminary assessment.

      Because our fees are mutually agreed upon before the commencement of the program, my students don’t have to be concerned about the time they invest with me, and they won’t receive any unexpected charges.

      I’m sorry I won’t be accepting new students till early Q2 2023 due to my current work commitments.

  6. Hello,

    Are you currently accepting for 1st quarter 2023 for CPHQ testing? I’m interested in tutoring.

    Thank you,
    Sabrina

    1. Hello Sabrina,

      Due to my other work commitments and the process of updating our content to address the changes in the CPHQ exam content outline that will take effect in March 2023 (and yet another large-scale platform upgrade which is already underway), we won’t be accepting new applications to our private CPHQ coaching program till the second half of Q2 2023.

      Thank you.

    1. Hello Ann,

      Thank you for reaching out and expressing interest in our CPHQ exam preparation workshops. To meet the needs of most CPHQ candidates, we plan to offer online programs and short courses (some of which will be live-streamed) from Q2 2023. We will publish the schedule for these courses on this website as soon as possible – given the current work to update our content to address the coming changes in the exam content outline (which the HQCC announced recently) and another upgrade of the CPHQ Tutor platform, this will likely be mid-March 2023. We don’t expect to conduct any in-person CPHQ exam prep program in the first half of 2023.

  7. It is very disappointing to only have access to the course exam for 7 days. I feel my money could have been used in another way.

    1. Hello Alnettia,

      Our records show you purchased the Performance and Process Improvement quiz on January 23, and completed it (twice) on the same day. You bought the other three quizzes a few hours later but completed only the Health Data Analytics quiz (twice). Therefore, you haven’t attempted the following two quizzes that you paid for:

      Quiz – Organizational Leadership
      Quiz – Patient Safety

      We set an access duration period for our products for several reasons, perhaps the most important of which is easy removal from public access when we deprecate any product. The access duration period isn’t the same for all products; it depends on the content of the product. For our current quizzes (as at February 4, 2023), the period is set to seven days because we believe this is ample time for a candidate to complete a quiz that contains up to 43 questions, and to even take it again (as you have done). To us, it is imperative we inform the buyer (you in this case) of the time period when the content can be accessed. In my opinion, the statements “The access period for this quiz is 7 days from time of purchase” and “Quiz access period of 7 days” on the product pages (of all four quizzes currently available for purchase) are adequate.

      Whatever your reason for not starting the two quizzes, I strongly feel you should give them a go.

      In the past, we could simply extend the access period from our end in circumstances like yours. But with the existing (upgraded) software, extending the access duration of protected content for a user after he/she has bought the product is not possible.

      As such, this is what I can offer you: within the next few hours (please give us up to 12 hours to complete the task), we will send a 100% OFF coupon code for each of the two quizzes you have not attempted to your registered email address. The two quizzes will, therefore, be free of charge to you, and you can take them at any time convenient for you. The coupon codes will work for only the versions of the quizzes you purchased, not future ones. You will have access to each of the quizzes for seven (7) days from the time you “purchase” the quizzes using the coupon codes. To be clear, if you use the coupon codes at checkout, the quizzes will be completely free. I recommend you use the coupon codes as soon as possible and within the next two or three weeks because they are due for updates soon.

      I apologize for the delay in replying to your comment. We generally respond to emails in less than 24 hours. However, comments left on our blog posts may take longer. If you need to reach out to me instead or in addition to the support crew, please send me an email at the email address below.

      Best,

      Andy
      cphqtutor@cphqtutor.com

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