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Arizona
Success
Stories: ARIZONA
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- After a Medicare
beneficiary filed a complaint with Health Services Advisory Group
(HSAG), the Arizona QIO worked successfully with a physician to improve
management of anticoagulant therapy, supervision of staff, and communication
with the patient and family. In
the end, the physician said the quality improvement process was a “very
educational experience” and that he was “happy that I
was forced to go through with it.”
- Health Services Advisory Group (HSAG), the Arizona QIO, worked with the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association and The University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman Arizona College of Public Health Rural Health Office to develop the Rural Hospital Award Program (renamed this year after its late champion, Carter L. Marshall Rural Hospital Quality Award). The award uses publicly reported Medicare data to recognize rural hospitals that provided equal or better care than their urban counterparts.
- Health
Services Advisory Group, the Arizona QIO, has joined with the Arizona
Hospital and Healthcare Association and the Arizona Medical Association
to create the Arizona Partnership for Implementing Patient Safety (APIPS),
comprised of quality improvement leaders, insurance industry representatives,
and physician champions. APIPS has worked to raise awareness of patient
safety issues through coalition meetings, partnerships, media outreach,
and legislative efforts.
- Health
Services Advisory Group, the Arizona QIO worked with Good Shepherd
Retirement Center, a 157-bed facility in Peoria, to improve nursing
home care through the Arizona Nursing Home Quality Initiative (NHQI).
From 2002 to 2004, the nursing home reduced pressure sores by 37 percent,
chronic pain by 66 percent, post-acute pain by 62 percent, and the
use of restraints by 100 percent.
- The Arizona
QIO, Health Services Advisory Group, worked with 12 physician offices
in the Arizona State Diabetes Collaborative, a health care quality
improvement project to improve chronic care and preventive care
for diabetic patients. From February 2003 to June 2004 average rates
of HbA1c (an indicator of blood sugar control) decreased from 7.85
percent to 7.47 percent, a positive change of 0.38 percent with an
estimated impact of 9.5 percent reduction in mortality.
- Santa Rita
Care Center Nursing Home reduces pain for residents: Working with the
Arizona QIO, Health Services Advisory Group (HSAG), Santa Rita Care
Center adopted a quality improvement model for sustained change that relies on small, rapid-cycle improvement. This 115-bed, urban, for-profit, nursing home cut the percentage of patients experiencing chronic pain from 12% down to 2% in 2002-2003. The home’s administrator provides support within the nursing home, attends and encourages nursing leadership to participate in statewide learning sessions, and has assisted in coordinating improvement activities in conjunction with the nursing home trade association.
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