| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
Contact: Richard Deutsch |
| July 25, 2005 |
202-261-7573 |
CMS “Roadmap
for Quality”:
Key role for QIOs
Statement
by David Schulke, Executive Vice President, AHQA
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services today released a “Quality
Improvement Roadmap” that outlines major CMS strategies for assuring
that all Americans get safe and effective health care.
The Roadmap commits
CMS to revamping its payment policies to reward providers and practitioners
for delivering the right care, for “improving quality
and avoiding unnecessary costs.” AHQA fully supports the CMS commitment
to provide financial incentives for superior performance. As the country’s
largest health care purchaser, CMS can move the whole health care market
in this direction.
Paying for the right care will encourage doctors and hospitals to do better,
principally by using information technology to track quality of care and
by adopting clinical practices shown by research to be most effective.
Quality Improvement
Organizations (QIOs) will play a key role in this effort. “Many
providers may need help to identify and implement the changes needed to improve
care,” the Roadmap states. “The Medicare Quality Improvement
Organizations (QIOs) are CMS’ major vehicle to deliver this help.” QIOs
are needed to assist hospitals of all sizes and locations, as was demonstrated
again last week in a study published by the New England Journal of Medicine,
where authors Jha and others concluded, “The moderate differences in
performance associated with hospitals’ characteristics suggest the
need to target a large breadth of hospitals for improvement in the quality
of care.”
In August, QIOs begin
a new three-year scope of work for CMS. In this new contract cycle, the
Roadmap notes, “The QIOs will help providers begin
to make changes in four key areas: measuring and reporting on quality, redesigning
care processes [e.g., making sure patients have needed orders for drug therapy
before they are discharged], transforming organizational culture [e.g., securing
the active support of hospital executives for changes to reliably order drug
therapy before the patient is discharged], and adopting and effectively using
health IT to support these objectives.”
A critical component
of new QIO work will be to help providers choose and install health IT
systems that are effective in improving care. The Roadmap states, “The
QIOs are currently working with medical professional organizations and
more than 60 private vendors who are committed to the shared goals of measurable
quality improvement, avoidance of unnecessary medical costs and complications,
and interoperability.”
The Roadmap
also stresses the importance of partnerships to improve care. Two new examples
of such partnerships include QIOs in every state providing technical assistance
to the Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP), a major national initiative
dedicated to making surgery safer, and the QIOs’ role
as support centers for the 100,000 Lives Campaign, initiated last December
by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.
The American Health Quality Association is dedicated to
improving the safety and effectiveness of health care. AHQA represents the
national network of Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs) that work with
hospitals, medical practices, health plans, long-term care facilities, home
health agencies, and employers to encourage the spread of best clinical practices
and improve systems of care delivery. Visit: www.ahqa.org
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