Qualidigm -National Hospital Quality Alliance

National Hospital Quality Alliance

Project Overview
What's New
Tools & Resources
FAQs
Our Partners
Project Team
Events

Project Overview

Imagine a health care system where every person receives the right care every time, and where health care practitioners and providers have the tools and resources to deliver that care. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and Qualidigm are dedicated to realizing this vision by participating in the national Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA) program.

The American Hospital Association (AHA), the Federation of American Hospitals (FAH) and the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) have launched a national voluntary initiative to collect and report hospital quality performance information. This effort is intended to make critical information about hospital performance accessible to the public and to inform and invigorate efforts to improve quality. Voluntary reporting is an essential first step to realize this goal. This project builds upon previous CMS and Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) strategies to identify illnesses and/or clinical conditions that affect Medicare beneficiaries in order to: promote the best medical practices associated with the targeted clinical disorders; prevent or reduce further instances of these selected clinical disorders; and prevent related complications.

Objectives of the HQA

Refine and standardize hospital data transmission and performance measures.
Provide useful and valid clinical information to the public.
Provide hospitals with a sense of predictability about public reporting expectations.
Stimulate improvement in hospital quality of care.

HQA Measures

Qualidigm, Connecticut’s Quality Improvement Organization (QIO), is working with Connecticut hospitals – their leadership and staff - to use a variety of techniques and strategies to ensure and evaluate the safety of every patient and to implement programs designed to measurably improve health care quality and outcomes for hospitalized patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI), heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care. As your QIO, we are committed to helping hospitals deliver care that is consistently safe, effective, efficient, timely, person-centered, and equitable.

Qualidigm is assisting Connecticut hospitals to improve care using the following key strategies identified by CMS as part of the national Hospital Quality Alliance:

Measure and Report Clinical Performance – Continue to publicly report performance on the core set of standardized quality measures for hospitalized patients with acute myocardial infraction, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care. Expand reporting to include all hospital measures and prepare hospitals for pay-for-performance programs. Ensure that the data hospitals report are accurate.
Assist Hospitals with Public Reporting – Promote participation in and familiarize hospitals with the requirements of the Reporting Hospital Quality Data for Annual Payment Update (RHQDAPU). Provide participating HQA hospitals with results and feedback on the quarterly validations conducted by the CMS Clinical Data Abstraction Center (CDAC).

Statewide Goals Include:

Improve the quality of care and safety for patients hospitalized for:
- Acute Myocardial Infarction
- Heart Failure
- Pneumonia
- Surgery

Qualidigm’s Approach:

Our staff consults with hospitals on ways to improve care and patient outcomes by:

Partnership Building

Working with hospital leaders, federal and state agencies and industry associations to create partnerships that expand our collective knowledge and resources to promote quality improvement.
Supporting Connecticut’s End Stage Renal Disease Network in promoting the Fistula First Project.

Performance Feedback

Assisting hospitals in their submission of publicly reported performance data.
Conducting presentations related to publicly reported performance data for the Connecticut Hospital Association and its membership.
Helping consumers understand and use the information provided on the Hospital Compare website to assess the quality of care delivered in Connecticut hospitals.

Quality Improvement Training and Support

Sharing effective quality improvement strategies, expertise and educational materials.

Marketing and Communications

Recognizing outstanding quality improvement efforts through the Qualidigm Quality Awards program.

Back to Top

What's New

AMI and Heart Failure Contraindications Pocket Card
This pocket card was developed for the explicit conditions for the AMI and Heart Failure measures contraindications to Beta Blockers, ACEI/ARB and ASA.

Chronic Kidney Disease - A Pocket Guide for Primary Care Physicians

Primary Care Physicians’ Knowledge and Practice Patterns in the Treatment of Chronic Kidney Disease: An Upstate New York Practice-based Research Network (UNYNET) Study

Visit Hospital Compare for the most current publicly reported hospital performance data.

Back to Top

Tools & Resources

Wallet Medication Card

Qualidigm and the Qualidigm PSO are working with partners including the Connecticut Department of Public Health, CHA and the CHREF Patient Safety Organization to promote awareness of patient safety strategies and empower patients to be more active partners in their care. As the first step in this statewide effort to engage patients in safety, we have developed a wallet medication card in order to assist consumers in maintaining an accurate record of the medicines they take and other important information. It is critical that your health care providers have complete information about your medical history and current medications, and we encourage all consumers to use the wallet medication card or a similar tool to track this information. The wallet medication card and instructions are available in two formats by clicking on the links below. The first format (PDF) is for consumers who will print the card and complete it by hand. The second format (Word) is for consumers who would like to download the card as a Microsoft Word document and save it to their own computer for filling out electronically before printing

Click here for Wallet Medication Card (PDF version).
Click here for Wallet Medication Card (Word version).

Creating AV Fistulas in All Eligible Hemodialysis Patients - The Medicare Learning Network is making this training module available which was developed by the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, Office of Continuing Education in conjunction with the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, Tulsa, Department of Surgery. This training module consists of several presentations related to AV fistulas.
MedQIC is a website where health care professionals can find and share quality improvement resources and browse through recommended interventions developed by colleagues and experts in their field. MedQIC offers tools, articles and links to resources about how to transform organizational culture, adopt health information technology, redesign care processes, and measure and report performance.

QualityNet Quest - QualityNet Quest is the online questions and answers database for MedQIC. QualityNet Quest provides centralized and standardized management of questions and answers submitted by individuals in the health care quality improvement and patient safety professions.

American Heart Association

American Lung Association

Back to Top

FAQs

What are the national quality measures for hospitals?
The categories of quality measures include:

What are the benefits of participating in the Reporting Hospital Quality Data for Annual Payment Update (RHQDAPU)?
Hospitals that participate will receive their full annual update from Medicare in fiscal year 2006. Additionally, participating hospitals will be recognized as early adopters and leaders of quality improvement standards.

What are the requirements for a hospital to receive full payment update under the Medicare Modernization Act?
The RHQDAPU initiative requires hospitals to submit data for specific quality measures for health conditions common among people with Medicare and which typically result in hospitalization. For the fiscal year payment update in 2006, CMS requires hospitals to continuously submit data regarding 10 quality measures for three medical conditions: acute myocardial infarction, heart failure and pneumonia. These measures are the same "starter set" of measures used in the voluntary reporting effort established by the Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA) initiative.

How often are hospitals required to submit their performance data?
Hospitals participating in the RHQDAPU initiative must adhere to the submission deadlines established by CMS as follows:

Data Transmission Deadlines - Hospitals participating in the RHQDAPU initiative must submit their health care quality improvement data quarterly to the QIO Clinical Warehouse via the QualityNet website.

Public Reporting Deadlines - After their data have been processed, hospitals are given 30 days to preview the data for their facility to be reported publicly on Hospital Compare, the CMS website for beneficiaries. (HQA Preview Reports are made available to participating hospitals via the QualityNet website.)

Back to Top

Our Partners

American College of Surgeons - Connecticut Chapter
American Heart Association - Connecticut Chapter
American Lung Association - Connecticut Chapter
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
Connecticut Department of Public Health
Connecticut Hospital Association
Connecticut Thoracic Society
Fistula First - National Vascular Access Improvement Inititiative

Back to Top

Project Team

Project Manager & Director of Consulting Services
Anne Elwell, RN, MPH
(860) 632-6322
aelwell@qualidigm.org

Analysis
Shih-Yieh Ho, MPH, PhD
(860) 632-6319
syiehho@qualidigm.org

Administrative Assistant
Doreen Ostapchuk

Marketing & Communications
Michele Kelvey-Albert, MPH, CHES

Professionals

National Hospital Quality Alliance

Project Overview

Objectives of the HQA

HQA Measures

Statewide Goals Include:

Qualidigm’s Approach:

Back to Top

What's New

Back to Top

Tools & Resources

Back to Top

FAQs

Back to Top

Our Partners

Back to Top

Project Team

Back to Top