New CMS Program Expands the Work of the Quality Improvement Organizations
The following is AHQA’s Statement on the HIIN Awards. For a PDF version of the release, please click here.
Over the past 4 years, the Quality Innovation Networks – Quality Improvement Organizations (QIN-QIOs), in partnership with Partnership for Patients and Hospital Engagement Networks, have made significant progress in keeping patients safe – including an estimated 2.1 million fewer patients harmed, 87,000 lives saved, and nearly $20 billion in cost-savings. CMS’ newly announced program, the Hospital Improvement and Innovation Network (HIIN), has been awarded $347 million to continue this important work and integrate new national, regional, and state hospital associations and health system organizations into the QIO family.
Building on this shared success, new, ambitious goals have been set for the HIIN program. Through 2019, these Networks will work to achieve a 20 percent decrease in overall patient harm and a 12 percent reduction in 30-day hospital readmissions as a population-based measure (readmissions per 1,000 people) from the 2014 baseline. The establishment of these new goals raises the bar for improvements in patient safety in the acute care hospital setting.
“The QIN-QIOs are excited and anxious to collaborate with a broader quality improvement network under the HIIN program and commend CMS for developing a program that will maximize our reach as QIOs,” said Jane Brock, MD, MSPH, President of the American Health Quality Association. “Together, we will be able to have even greater impact as we continue to play a significant role in building a system that delivers better care.”
QIOs have been working on behalf of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) since 1984 to help improve health care delivery, safety, and efficiency in every U.S. state and territory through a combination of:
- Improvement collaboratives with local health care providers and provider organizations
- Targeted assistance for individual health care providers
- Direct intervention with Medicare beneficiaries and the health care community
QIOs are private, mostly not-for-profit, organizations staffed by teams of physicians and other health care quality experts. QIOs work directly with health care providers—such as hospitals, physicians, nursing homes, and home health agencies—to ensure the most current, clinically proven techniques and practices are being put in place to deliver the safest and highest quality care.
For more information on the QIN-QIO program, please visit the American Health Quality Association website.
For more information on the HIIN announcement, please visit the CMS website.
Printable release: AHQA Statement on the HIIN awards.pdf