Contact the Oklahoma QIO for more details Oklahoma Foundation for Medical Quality See QIO success in other states Success Stories: OKLAHOMA

Oklahoma Foundation for Medical Quality (OFMQ), the state’s QIO, worked with Langston University, a historically African American school, to develop a curriculum for community health and minority health students that included outreach to African American Medicare beneficiaries on the importance of immunization. Through three flu seasons (2001 to 2004), OFMQ staff worked directly with the students, providing educational materials and support for outreach projects. Vaccination rates for both African Americans and Caucasians increased during the study period — the disparity between the two fell by 2%. In 1999, Norman Regional Hospital worked with the Oklahoma Foundation for Medical Quality, the state’s QIO, to improve pneumococcal vaccination rates. Since the inception of the program, the hospital has vaccinated more than 7,200 patients, administered more than 5,600 doses of influenza vaccine, and landed higher than the top 10 percent of hospitals in the country in looking at core quality measures in 2004. Sayre Home Health in Oklahoma collaborated in April 2003 with the state’s QIO, Oklahoma Foundation for Medical Quality , and saw a 26.3 percent improvement in patients experiencing dyspnea (or shortness of breath) and a 120 percent improvement in patients experiencing anxiety. Duncan Regional Hospital Home Care in Oklahoma partnered with the state QIO, Oklahoma Foundation for Medical Quality to i mprove the rate of patients who improve in walking or mobility (also known as ambulation/locomotion). Through training workshops, chart audits, and interviews with clinical staff, the agency achieved a 29.72 percent increase in patients’ ambulation/locomotion. Homehealth Care of Oklahoma, located in Muskogee , worked with the Oklahoma Foundation for Medical Quality—the state’s QIO—from April 2003 to January 2005, with an aim of improving on dyspnea, or shortness of breath, and urinary incontinence for patients. The agency saw dramatic improvement in both of the selected measures, attaining a 45 percent improvement in dyspnea at the one-year mark and a 53 percent improvement in urinary incontinence during the same period. The agency maintained statistically significant improvement 20 months after implementing a plan. The Oklahoma Foundation for Medical Quality, the state’s QIO, worked with the Cardiology Clinic of Muskogee in 2004 to improve the consistency of preventative care for patients with diabetes. After working with the QIO, the clinic saw referrals for diabetes self-management education increase from 10 to 90 percent, documented eye exams rose from 50 to 85 percent, and documented foot exams went from 50 percent to 87 percent. The Ali Mohammad Internal Medicine Practice in Clinton , Oklahoma worked with the state’s QIO, Oklahoma Foundation for Medical Quality in 2004 and 2005 to implement a quality measures registry system for all Medicare beneficiaries. One year after establishing the registry, the number of patients who received appropriate services increased significantly from the baseline, including eye exam rates (from 67 percent to 89 percent), lipid profiles (90 to 95 percent), and mammograms (63 to 85 percent). United Methodist Retirement Community worked from October 2003 to December 2004 with the Oklahoma Foundation for Medical Quality, the state’s QIO, to reduce the number of high-risk pressure ulcers experienced by residents. UMRC began the project with a high-risk pressure ulcer score of 9.4 percent and ended with a score of 1.8 percent in December 2004. Mercy Health Center, Oklahoma City reduces its surgical site infection rate by 78% in patients receiving cardiac bypass, orthopedic, colon, and hysterectomy surgery: Mercy Health Center was one of 50 health care facilities to participate in the Surgical Site Infection Prevention project (SIP), a year long collaborative (2002-2003) led by Seattle-based QIO, Qualis Health. Mercy Health Center went from 100 surgeries between infections to more than 400 at the end of the one-year collaborative; achieved 100% on-time antibiotic administration to the target population; achieved 100% of patients who had prophylactic (preventive) antibiotics discontinued within 24 hours of surgery; achieved 100% of patients with normal body temperature during surgery. “Our longer-term goal is to spread and sustain effective system changes to all surgical procedures within our hospital,” said Ronda Paisley Shaw, RN, Infection Control Practitioner, Mercy Health Center. Oklahoma City nursing home shows 70% improvement in resident daily living skills At the Baptist Retirement Center in Oklahoma City, OK, activities of daily living (ADL) decline improved by 70% after implementing two quality improvement interventions over the course of a year with the Oklahoma Foundation for Medical Quality, the Oklahoma QIO. ADL measures decline in the ability of residents to perform daily tasks such as getting in and out of bed, eating and toiletry. The first initiative focused on restorative nursing by providing residents with in-house physical, speech and occupational therapy. By developing individual care programs and showing nursing aides the best ways to work with specific patients, care greatly improved. The second program, Walk-to-Dine, encourages residents to enter the dining room on foot instead of using a wheelchair. If residents cannot walk from their rooms, they bring their wheelchairs to the door and wait for an aide to walk them in. Working with the Oklahoma QIO, the Baptist Retirement Center learned that paying attention to patients on a daily basis allows the staff to catch changes early so that residents are less likely to experience ADL.

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