Jonathan Sugarman to Present at STFM Conference on Practice Improvement
Qualis Health President and CEO Jonathan Sugarman is presenting "Taking Stock—Quality Measurement in Primary Care" at the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine's Conference on Practice Improvement. This annual event provides a venue for learning from those on the front line of improving primary care practice.
QualityNet Speakers Include Qualis Health Staff
This year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' annual healthcare quality conference, QualityNet, will include four speakers from Qualis Health. Selena Bolotin, Director of Care Transitions and Patient Safety, will be part of a panel on innovative community engagement approaches. Medical Director Sharon Eloranta, Health IT Consultant Kelley Carnwath and Decision Support Consultant Meghan Donohue will present "Racial Disparities in Health: Learning from and Acting on Data."
New Video: Neighbors Helping Neighbors Navigate the Health System
None of us are at our best when ill or under stress—yet those are the very conditions that patients often experience when they interact with healthcare professionals. How can we be sure that patients fully understand the implications of their diagnosis, their discharge instructions or other important news related to their health?
One solution is to bring along another person to take notes, ask questions and listen carefully to the patient. That's where Volunteer Health Advocates can play an important role.
Learn how we collaborated to design the project, develop the curriculum and provide training to the first set of Volunteer Health Advocates. Watch "Neighbors Helping Neighbors Navigate the Health System" on YouTube.
Qualis Health Gold Sponsor of NAMD Fall Conference
From November 3 through November 5, the National Association of Medicaid Directors Fall Conference is taking place in Arlington, Virginia. Qualis Health is a Gold Sponsor and will be exhibiting at the event. You can find us at booth #105 in the exhibit hall.
Go to the NAMD Fall Conference website.
Qualis Health Exhibits at MGMA14
We're looking forward to exhibiting at the Medical Group Management Association 2014 Annual Conference. This year's event is taking place October 26–29 in Las Vegas and the theme is "Always Forward." We'll be in booth #148; please stop by and say hi.
Director Bolotin to Speak at Elder Friendly Futures Conference
On October 8, Qualis Health Director of Washington Care Transitions and Patient Safety Selena Bolotin will present "Volunteer Health Advocates Support Neighbors for Better Health Outcomes" at the University of Washington's Building Elder Friendly Futures Locally and Globally conference. Qualis Health is a Silver Sponsor of the conference.
Qualis Health at IHA Conference
The Idaho Hospital Association's (IHA's) 81st Annual Convention is October 4 through 7 in Sun Valley. Qualis Health President and CEO Jonathan Sugarman will be presenting "Implications of the 'High Value of Healthcare' Movement for Idaho Hospitals. A View From Qualis Health." Other Qualis Health staff, including Zach Hodges, Martha Jaworski, Kelly McGrath, Christine Packer, Linda Rowe and Julie Sylvester, will also be speaking at the conference. Qualis Health is a Silver Sponsor of the IHA convention and will be exhibiting there as well.
Visit the Idaho Hospital Association's website for more information.
Peggy Evans Published in Journal of General Internal Medicine
Qualis Health's Peggy Evans, Director of WIREC and CMS Health IT, is co-author of "Provider Perceptions of the Electronic Health Record Incentive Programs: A Survey of Eligible Professionals Who Have and Have Not Attested to Meaningful Use." Published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, the paper examines the perspectives and experiences of a random sample of Idaho and Washington healthcare professionals eligible for financial incentives for demonstrating meaningful use of their EHRs.
View the abstract of "Provider Perceptions of the Electronic Health Record Incentive Programs: A Survey of Eligible Professionals Who Have and Have Not Attested to Meaningful Use."
Qualis Health Launches YouTube Channel
In June, Qualis Health launched its new YouTube channel and has been updating it regularly since then. Over a dozen videos provide guidance to healthcare providers on a variety of subjects including hand hygiene, fall reduction and care transitions.
Visit our YouTube channel.
Harvard Medical School Center for Primary Care Publishes Results of a Qualis Health Co-Designed Model to Transform Primary Care Education and Practice
The Harvard Medical School Center for Primary Care has published an article in Academic Medicine that outlines the accomplishments of a joint project with Qualis Health and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). The two-year learning collaborative that Qualis Health and IHI designed for Harvard led to successful implementation of improvements that affect more than 450 resident physicians and more than 260,000 patients in the greater Boston area.
Read an abstract of this article and what the work entailed.
New CMS Data Show QIOs Improved Care for Nation's Medicare Beneficiaries
New data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) show that the nation's Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs), including Qualis Health, have prevented more than 95,000 hospitalizations and 27,000 hospital readmissions among Medicare beneficiaries, working in close partnership with providers, federal, state and private partners and others in local communities.
Read more from the American Health Quality Association.
Governor Inslee Appoints Jonathan Sugarman to Health Performance Measures Coordinating Committee
Qualis Health President and CEO Jonathan Sugarman was recently appointed to the Health Performance Measures Coordinating Committee by Washington State Governor Jay Inslee. The committee is charged with recommending standard statewide measures of health performance to inform public and private purchasers, as well as proposing benchmarks to track costs and improvements in health outcomes in Washington State.
New White Paper Details Learnings from REACH Healthcare Foundation Medical Home Initiative
A new white paper prepared by Bonni Brownlee, Qualis Health's Director of Quality Improvement and Compliance Consulting Services, was released this month. Commissioned by the REACH Healthcare Foundation, The Journey Towards the Patient-Centered Medical Home—The Kansas City Experience is intended to disseminate the learnings from the Foundation's Medical Home Initiative to the broader health community as primary care practice is redesigned to adopt the patient-centered medical home model of care. It examines the journeys of nine safety net primary care clinics in Kansas City as they worked with a technical assistance team from Qualis Health to integrate components of patient-centered care into their daily work.
Learn more about our work on the REACH Medical Home Initiative.
Qualis Health Launches Online Quality Reporting Resource Center for Hospitals
With the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, Medicare is now aligning hospital and provider reimbursement with performance as part of the national effort to control costs and ensure quality for patients. The Medicare pay-for-performance effort is based on hospital data reporting programs that focus on clinical outcomes and patient experience of care during hospital stays.
Qualis Health's Quality Reporting Resource Center provides the support that hospitals need, including a seven-step Roadmap to Effective Quality Data Reporting, to strengthen their use of quality data to participate effectively in Medicare's data reporting and pay-for-performance programs. The Roadmap will also help hospitals systematically monitor and improve results for their patients and communities.
