Appendix B: Better Quality Information Pilot Profiles

Regional Coalition Collaboration Guide

California Cooperative Healthcare Reporting Initiative, San Francisco, California

Mission

The California Cooperative Healthcare Reporting Initiative was convened to help consumers and employers make informed health care purchasing decisions through its mission to collect and report comparable, reliable performance data.

Overview

As a collaborative of health care purchasers, plans, and providers managed by the Pacific Business Group on Health, the California Cooperative Healthcare Reporting Initiative seeks to:

  • Collect and report standardized, reliable health plan and provider performance data.
  • Promote the use of accurate and comparable quality measures within health care.
  • Create efficiency in data collection, leading to reduced burden and cost to all participants.
  • Provide a source for expert advice to consumer reporting entities.

Convened in 1993 by the Pacific Business Group on Health, the California Cooperative Healthcare Reporting Initiative is governed by an executive committee with equal representation from purchasers, plans, and providers that oversees all projects and determines overall policy and strategy. A reporting committee advises the executive committee on all matters of internal and public reporting, whereas various project committees ensure that overall requirements and objectives of the projects are achieved. California Cooperative Healthcare Reporting Initiative stakeholders include Pacific Business Group on Health participating employers, representing nearly 3 million California employees, retirees, and their families; the major California health plans; and provider organizations.

Data Experience

The California Cooperative Healthcare Reporting Initiative has more than 10 years of experience collecting and pooling performance data at the health plan and medical group levels and, more recently, at the physician level. Eight health plans representing more than 85 percent of the commercial health maintenance organization population in California participate in a variety of the cooperative's data collection projects, and many plans participate in several different projects. In 2003, the Pacific Business Group on Health started collecting individual physician-level patient experience data and reporting performance feedback results to providers from 12 groups. In 2006, the California cooperative reported results from more than 3,000 individual physicians from 27 groups.

Performance Measurement

Since 1997 the California Cooperative Healthcare Reporting Initiative has advanced physician-level performance measurement in California and is currently using a survey tool based on the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) Clinician and Group Survey tool in physician-level measurement. The cooperative's work in California has informed the CAHPS survey development process. In particular, the cooperative and Pacific Business Group on Health staff have actively worked to develop the CAHPS as part of an effort to create a nationally standardized tool for measuring patient experience at the group, physician, and practice-site levels.

Reporting and Performance Improvement

The California Cooperative Healthcare Reporting Initiative has issued annual performance feedback reports since 1994. These reports, conducted through multiple reporting vehicles, compare the performance of the participating health plans on specific measures. Physicians receive feedback reports by individual health plan members of the cooperative and their respective medical groups. The cooperative's 2005 Report on Quality included results for each participating plan as compared to the national mean, national 75th percentile, and national 90th percentile, for the following clinical topics:

Chronic CarePreventive
Diabetes careImmunizations for children and teens
Asthma carePrenatal care
Antidepressant medicationPostpartum care
Mental illnessBreast and cervical cancer screening
High blood pressure treatmentChlamydia
Beta blocker treatmentColorectal cancer screening
Cholesterol managementSmoking cessation
Appropriate treatment for children with upper respiratory infectionInfluenza immunizations
Appropriate testing for children with pharyngitis 
Osteoporosis 

Impact and Accomplishments

  • The California Cooperative Healthcare Reporting Initiative is the main source of data for California's Office of the Public Advocate consumer report card, the official health plan and medical group report card for the State.
  • Employers, such as CalPERS and Wells Fargo, use the cooperative's data in their plan chooser tools for employees and their dependents.
  • The California Cooperative Healthcare Reporting Initiative produces physician group performance data that are used by Integrated Healthcare Association pay for performance.
  • The California Cooperative Healthcare Reporting Initiative spawned a multistakeholder quality improvement collaborative, the California Quality Collaborative, whose mission is to advance the quality and efficiency of patient care in California through collaboration.
  • The Pacific Business Group on Health has been actively involved in the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality-funded CAHPS development work to create a nationally standardized tool for measuring patient experience with care at the group, physician, and practice-site levels.

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Center for Health Information and Research-Arizona State University Phoenix, Arizona

Mission

The Center for Health Information and Research provides all health care stakeholders with information that enables quality improvement activities at the policy and the practice level.

Overview

The Center for Health Information and Research is an academic-based research group at Arizona State University that is the home of Arizona HealthQuery, a community health data system. This data system, a voluntary collaboration of health care providers, insurers, employers, and a variety of State entities, offers a comprehensive view of the relative performance of all stakeholders in advancing quality, efficiency, effectiveness, and productivity. Arizona HealthQuery, a patient-centric dataset, offers the unique ability to track patients across time, providers, and payers.

As a collaborative venture, the center promotes a consensus-based approach with robust input, communication, and outreach to the provider community. From the beginning, physician and hospital leaders have actively participated in the effort, with partners pledging to use quality, outcome, and value measures to expand the existing Arizona HealthQuery database.

Data Experience

The aim of the Arizona HealthQuery project is to develop and maintain a community health data system that houses essential and comprehensive health information for each resident of Arizona. The system is unique for its ability to provide continuously updated health care information and to link patients across systems and over time. The Arizona HealthQuery database began in the early 1990s, has been in production in its current form since 2003, and currently integrates data from a large number of data sources.

Performance Measurement

In 2007, the Center for Health Information and Research began reporting measures related to breast, colorectal, and cervical cancer screening as well as to coronary artery disease. It plans to expand its measures related to heart failure, diabetes, asthma, and depression.

Reporting and Performance Improvement

Many studies have been conducted using the Arizona HealthQuery data warehouse. Most recently, The Effect of AHCCCS Disenrollment on Health Care Utilization in Maricopa County found that enrollment in the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, or AHCCCS, was associated with decreased emergency department use and decreased hospitalization as enrollees received more care through routine visits. The report also found that the decision to change eligibility and to disenroll members produces the opposite effect: more emergency department use, more hospitalizations, and less routine care.

In the first phase of the AQA* pilot, Center for Health Information and Research reports will be based on the performance of primary care physicians in Maricopa County, which represents about 60 percent of Arizona's population, according to 2004 U.S. Census population estimates.

Impact and Accomplishments

  • The Center for Health Information and Research has robust health plan participation, including those actively involved in the AQA (for example, Health Net of Arizona, CIGNA, Humana, and PacifiCare), enabling natural synergies with AQA activities.
  • Engagement of employer support has been cultivated. Employer support is driven by the Human Resources Policy Association, a national organization of 260 chief human resource officers representing the Nation's largest employers. The center's current employer partners include the Honeywell Corporation and the State of Arizona.
  • The Center for Health Information and Research and Arizona HealthQuery have an established track record in data aggregation and reporting at the community level, offering a strong platform on which to build a broader data aggregation, public reporting, and quality improvement agenda. The existing database already includes administrative and encounter data for more than 9 million patients, including statewide Medicaid claims data.

 

*Formerly the Ambulatory Care Quality Alliance, this organization is now known simply as AQA because its mission was broadened to incorporate all areas of physician practice (www.aqaalliance.org). 


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Indiana Health Information Exchange, Indianapolis, Indiana

Mission

The Indiana Health Information Exchange is committed to using information technology and shared clinical information to improve health care in Indiana, enhance health research, and be a national model of health information exchange.

Overview

The Indiana Health Information Exchange is a nonprofit venture supported by a collaboration of Indiana health care institutions. Its vision is to use information technology and shared clinical information to:

  • Improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of health care in the State of Indiana.
  • Create unparalleled research capabilities for health researchers.
  • Exhibit a successful model of health information exchange for the rest of the country.

The Indiana Health Information Exchange was founded in 2004 by a collaboration of 13 institutions representing hospitals, providers, researchers, public health organizations, and economic development groups. The Regenstrief Institute, BioCrossroads, and the five charter hospital systems are key stakeholders. Other stakeholders include local and State health departments, the State medical society, community health networks, the local quality improvement organization, and the Employers' Forum of Indiana.

Data Experience

The Indiana Health Information Exchange covers a nine-county Indianapolis metropolitan statistical area in central Indiana. Physicians participating in the exchange cover roughly 60 percent of the fee-for-service population (mostly self-insured employers), 16 percent of the uninsured, 12 percent of the Medicare fee-for-service population, and 12 percent of the managed care population. The Indiana Health Information Exchange's data aggregation efforts are built upon those of the Indiana Network for Patient Care, the oldest, largest, and most successful health information exchange.

Through the initiative with Indiana Network for Patient Care, the exchange aggregates clinical data from several different sources, including hospitals, laboratories, and public health agencies. These data are then complemented with claims data from payers for the exchange's pay-for-performance project.

Performance Measurement

A consensus of medical directors from primary care practice groups and health plans determined the measures used to start the pay-for-performance program. The Indiana Health Information Exchange drew from established nationally accepted measures, such as those developed by the AQA, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service's Doctor's Office Quality Information Technology program, and the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set.

The criteria for choosing measures include national acceptability, clinical validity, relevance to payers and consumers, likelihood for improvement, and ability to measure outcomes. As the measures are finalized, the AQA's "Parameters for Selecting Ambulatory Care Performance Measures" will be used as a guideline.

Reporting and Performance Improvement

The Indiana Health Information Exchange's first milestone accomplishment is a community-wide clinical messaging service providing physicians with a single source for clinical results for laboratory and pathology, radiology, electrocardiogram reports, transcriptions, and emergency department and hospital encounter information from all participating central Indiana hospitals. The exchange will report to providers and consumers, with provider reports including summaries of provider performance on the included measures as well as individual patient-level reminders. Consumer reports will include physician group and community-level data.

Impact and Accomplishments

  • The Indiana Health Information Exchange's stakeholder and partner, the Regenstrief Institute, is an internationally recognized informatics and health care research organization. Regenstrief's research scientists have developed the Regenstrief Medical Records System, one of the nation's first electronic medical record systems. Bridges to Excellence citations from investigators at the Regenstrief Institute account for approximately one third of Bridges to Excellence evidence.
  • The exchange collaborates with the Indianapolis Patient Safety Coalition to address several important patient safety issues in the inpatient setting.
  • The Indiana Health Information Exchange participates in nationwide knowledge-sharing efforts, such as Connecting Communities for Better Health.

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Massachusetts Health Quality Partners, Boston, Massachusetts

Mission

Massachusetts Health Quality Partners improves the quality of health care services to the residents of Massachusetts through broad-based collaboration among health care stakeholders.

Overview

Massachusetts Health Quality Partners was established in 1995 by Massachusetts health care leaders who recognized the importance of valid, comparable measures to drive improvement. As a coalition of physicians, hospitals, health plans, consumers, purchasers, and government agencies working together to promote improvement in the quality of health care services, the coalition provides physicians and consumers with comparative performance information on physician groups and practices. The coalition brings together a large number of Massachusetts health care organizations, including the State's Executive Office of Health and Human Services, its medical society, hospital association, physician leaders, and several major health plans, all of which collaborate to endorse and disseminate a variety of evidence-based practice guidelines and quality improvement tools.

Data Experience

Massachusetts Health Quality Partners has been aggregating physician-level data for primary care physicians across health plans since 2003. The coalition has reported on the comparative performance of primary care physicians on both Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) and patient experience measures.

The Massachusetts coalition has developed a unique algorithm to group each individual physician into the appropriate practice site, medical group, and physician network. This allows Massachusetts Health Quality Partners to aggregate and report data at various levels of care from individual physician practices to physicians' offices, medical groups, and networks.

The coalition's data reporting covers roughly 5,000 adult and pediatric primary care physicians in five health plans serving commercially insured enrollees in health maintenance organizations and point-of-service products. More than 50 percent of commercially insured residents were enrolled in these plans during the period covered by the most recent report.

Performance Measurement

Massachusetts Health Quality Partners' online report, Quality Insights: Health Care Performance in Massachusetts, presents both clinical performance measures and patient experience measures. The clinical measures are drawn from the HEDIS Measure Set developed by the National Committee for Quality Assurance.

Patient experience measures are fielded from a survey instrument comprised of the best performing items from two validated surveys, Ambulatory Care Experiences Survey and the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Clinician and Group Survey. The instrument covers domains characterizing patients' experiences with their primary care physicians, including quality of physician-patient interactions and organizational features of care.

To further analyze performance measures and quality metrics, Massachusetts Health Quality Partners has forged partnerships with Tufts New England Medical Center, Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative, Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health, and the RAND Corporation.

Reporting and Performance Improvement

Massachusetts Health Quality Partners completed four cycles (2003-2006) of comparative HEDIS clinical performance reports to physician groups in Massachusetts, encompassing 2001 to 2006. In February 2005, the Massachusetts coalition issued its first public comparative performance report of 9 physician networks for 16 measures, including preventive care and management of certain chronic diseases. In February 2006, Massachusetts Health Quality Partners publicly released HEDIS clinical results for 150 medical groups. Performance stars are assigned to each group based on the group's performance against three benchmarks: the national 50th percentile, the national 90th percentile, and the Massachusetts statewide rate.

The current report includes the following HEDIS measures:

Chronic Care MeasuresPreventive Measures
Asthma medication for children and adultsWell visits for infants, children, and adolescents
Cholesterol screening after a heart attackBreast cancer screening
Depression in adultsCervical cancer screening
Diabetes care for adultsChlamydia screening

In March 2006, Massachusetts Health Quality Partners publicly launched results from its first statewide survey of patient experience. The reports present results for more than 400 practice sites. Performance stars for patient experience reporting tells how a physician's office compares to all the other physicians' offices in the State that were part of the coalition's survey.

The current report includes the following patient experience measures:

Quality of Physician-Patient InteractionsOrganizational Features of Care
CommunicationOrganizational access
Integration of careVisit-based continuity
Knowledge of the patientClinical team
Health promotionOffice staff

Impact and Accomplishments

  • For more than 10 years, Massachusetts Health Quality Partners has brought together multiple stakeholders, often with disparate agendas, who have effectively worked together to produce trusted, comparable performance measures that help drive health care quality improvement in Massachusetts.
  • Massachusetts Health Quality Partners has successfully implemented five public releases of performance information: four with physician performance information and one with hospital performance information. The coalition has designed a user-friendly Web site vetted by a health literacy specialist. The site incorporates findings from consumer focus groups the Massachusetts coalition has conducted to make information accessible and useful. Massachusetts Health Quality Partners has also developed a process to vet the public report and the press release with the coalition's multi-stakeholder members.
  • Massachusetts Health Quality Partners has developed a Web-based reporting process to provide physician organizations with performance reports. The coalition reports annually to primary care physicians about performance on clinical HEDIS measures at the physician network, medical group, practice site, and, if requested by the medical group, at the individual physician level. The Massachusetts coalition reports to primary care physicians and, beginning in 2008, will report to cardiologists, orthopedists and obstetricians/gynecologists about performance on the patient experience survey.
  • Massachusetts Health Quality Partners has successfully aggregated health plan claims data and attributed commercial health maintenance organization, point of service, and preferred provider organization patients to primary care and specialist physicians using a visit-based methodology to assign patients. It is the first organization in the country to implement this methodology, which enables it to broaden the patient experience survey to include preferred provider organization members and patients seeing specialists. The physician support and buy-in Massachusetts Health Quality Partners has garnered through its collaborative process means that physicians are more likely to embrace the measures resulting from this process.
  • The Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative selected Massachusetts Health Quality Partners, in partnership with Computer Sciences Corporation, to pioneer efforts to capture data from electronic health records and translate them into clinical performance measures for use in comparative performance reporting for physicians. The collaborative brings together the State's major health care stakeholders to establish an electronic health record system that enhances quality, efficiency, and safety for health care in Massachusetts.
  • Massachusetts Health Quality Partners is a founding member of the Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement, an association of regional health improvement collaboratives from around the country.
  • Supported by Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Massachusetts Health Quality Partners is providing data to Harvard researchers to analyze the impact of electronic health records on clinical quality.

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Minnesota Community Measurement, St. Paul, Minnesota

Mission

Minnesota Community Measurement accelerates the improvement of health by publicly reporting health care information.

Overview

Since 2002, Minnesota Community Measurement's collaborative, community approach has encouraged medical groups to improve health care quality by publicly reporting on several measures. All seven of Minnesota's nonprofit health insurance plans participated in developing the coalition's initial reports, with the Minnesota Medical Association joining the effort in 2005. Since that initial report publication, a health plan in South Dakota and two county-based purchasing organizations have provided data to Minnesota Community Measurement.

The resulting nonprofit community-based organization has a 16-member board of directors, with representation from health plans, hospitals, physicians, employers, business groups, and consumer organizations. The Reporting Advisory Committee (consisting of physicians and health care quality improvement experts) advises the board on the scope of data and measures. A separate workgroup of data experts from health plans looks at technical issues around data and reporting.

Data Experience

Minnesota Community Measurement data reporting covers more than 100 provider groups representing 700 clinic sites in Minnesota and bordering counties. These groups cover roughly 90 percent of primary care delivered in the State. Minnesota Community Measurement has aggregated data across eight health plans and two county-based purchasing organizations, including commercial health maintenance organizations, point of service organizations, preferred provider organizations, Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Program managed care, Medicare Advantage, Medicare Cost, and Medicare dual eligibles.

The Minnesota coalition reports all measures at the community and medical group levels and is committed to adopting and incorporating nationally accepted standards. Presently, the coalition is working with eight health plans as well as with several of the Bridges to Excellence program's health information networks to obtain additional data. These data are submitted directly to Minnesota Community Measurement from the medical groups and posted on the coalition's Web site at the clinic-site level.

Performance Measurement

The Minnesota Community Measurement 2005 report assessed 10 clinical topics and included more than 40 individual measures. Measures include a composite measure for optimal diabetes care. This composite measures patients who have met all five treatment targets to decrease their risk of developing cardiovascular disease and other complications of diabetes. The coalition uses physician-defined standards of care endorsed by the Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement.

Reporting and Performance Improvement

Since 2003, Minnesota Community Measurement has been reporting on medical groups, with its first public report released in 2004. The coalition's 2005 Health Care Quality Report, based on calendar year 2004 data, compared each medical group against a State benchmark as well as against all other medical groups. The report included the following measures:

Chronic Care MeasuresPreventive Measures
Optimal diabetes care composite (overall diabetes care)Immunizations for children and teens
Use of effective medications for asthmaWell-baby visits
Depression medication managementBreast and cervical cancer screening
High blood pressure treatmentChlamydia screening
New measures that were approved for reporting in 2006 (calendar year 2005 data) include:
Chronic Care MeasuresPreventive Measures
Cardiovascular disease care compositeColorectal cancer screening
Appropriate treatment for children with upper respiratory infectionCancer screening composite
Appropriate testing for children with pharyngitis 

Impact and Accomplishments

Minnesota Community Measurement is uniquely situated to rapidly implement data aggregation and reporting on new measures and to demonstrate the impact these efforts can have on improving the health of the community. Key accomplishments and impact on Minnesota's health care system include:

  • Providing performance information that encompasses roughly 90 percent of primary care delivered in the State.
  • Being one of the first organizations in the country to publicly report community-wide health care measure results by medical group.
  • Having strong physician support as a cornerstone of success, as evidenced by physician board representation and leadership roles in advisory groups.
  • Having as founding members all licensed Minnesota health plans that continue to provide direct financial support as well as a significant level of in-kind support through data collection and reporting.
  • Participating with the Minnesota Business Partnership on developing cost-of-care measures.
  • Collaborating with the State's Department of Human Services to develop a useful data collection and reporting process and tool for the State's Medicaid program.
  • Operating a Web site for 2 years that provides consumer information on medical groups across the State, with the site receiving an estimated 30,000 visits in November 2005.
  • Compiling evidence that overall community rates, including all children's health measures, are improving in Minnesota.

Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality, Madison, Wisconsin

Mission

The Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality is a voluntary consortium of organizations learning and working together to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of health care for the people of Wisconsin.

Overview

The nonprofit, statewide collaborative was founded in 2002 by several health delivery systems, each with a large multispecialty group clinic and tertiary hospital. Encompassing five geographically distinct markets, the collaborative now includes more than 40 physician groups, hospitals, and health plans, including two of the State's largest integrated delivery systems.

The Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality is governed by a board of directors and funded by member dues and grants. It has the active support and participation of the clinical and administrative leadership of most of Wisconsin's large, multispecialty groups, representing approximately 42 percent of the licensed physicians in the State. With more than 40 reporting entities from virtually every region in the State, the Wisconsin collaborative actively solicits the participation of public and private sector purchasers in its work, ensuring consumer perspective is considered in selecting measures and the preparing the public report.

Data Experience

Although membership includes several health plans and hospitals, the Wisconsin collaborative's primary focus is measuring and reporting on physician groups. Members have tested and verified reliable methods of data collection and aggregation within a broad range of physician group practices. The measurement methodology emphasizes the specification of a denominator that is population based, representing "all patients, all payers" for a given condition. This method of reporting generates highly accurate and actionable information, which in turn has generated a high degree of support for the collaborative within the physician community in Wisconsin.

Performance Measurement

The Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality has extensive experience in performance measurement at the physician-group level. Over the past 2 years, quality specialists from the collaborative's organizations have developed ambulatory care specifications that join administrative data with more robust clinical results, enabling health systems to collect and report quality of care results on all patients under their care. The collaborative's system and method measure the quality of care administered by health care providers on a given patient population. This approach offers several valuable outcomes, including the following:

  • It provides a system view of performance with the ability to drill down to provider level.
  • It includes all patients within a system in the population.
  • It represents all payers.
  • It delivers a ready-made patient registry.
  • It delivers a roadmap for improvement.
  • It provides the foundation for physician pay for performance.

To date, the Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality has developed and reported quality on a number of conditions, including diabetes, uncomplicated hypertension, postpartum care, and preventive services (colorectal, mammography, and cervical cancer screening). Its Web-based Performance & Progress Report (www.wchq.org/reporting/) consists of a broad and growing collection of performance measures that compare more than 40 reporting provider organizations. Each measure represents a specific aspect of care for a defined period that provides a "snapshot" of a given health care organization's performance in relation to an evidence-based standard as well as in relation to one another.

Reporting and Performance Improvement

The Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality 2005 Performance & Progress Report organized the measures into the following categories:

  • Access.
  • Patient satisfaction.
  • Critical care.
  • Pneumonia.
  • Diabetes.
  • Surgery.
  • Health information technology.
  • Women's health.
  • Heart care.

Reports are available at the physician group, health plan, and hospital levels. The reporting process, which enables physician groups to submit results using a secure Web-based data submission tool, includes two innovative components: a "preview report mechanism" for all reporting entities to use before data are published and a scalable infrastructure that supports significant expansion in measures without changing the reporting platform itself.

The collaborative continues to add participating entities and expand its measures with its unique measures structured so that participants can collect data on all patients within a health system regardless of payer sources, electronic medical record platform, or electronic medical record level of implementation. In 2006, the Wisconsin collaborative released results on preventive care services, such as breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screening.

Chronic Care MeasuresPreventive Measures
Blood sugar control and screeningBreast cancer screening
Controlling hypertensionCervical cancer screening
Kidney function monitoringColorectal cancer screening
Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol testing and monitoring for diabetics 

Impact and Accomplishments

  • The Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality is a founding member of the Wisconsin Health Information Organization and is responsible for catalyzing its inception. The Wisconsin Health Information Organization is building a data repository to support an expansion in reporting on ambulatory performance. The data will allow providers, employers and consumers to use measures of resource use and cost of care. When these data are combined with the clinical quality measures generated by the Wisconsin collaborative, stakeholders will be able to assess the value of care by looking at cost and quality over an entire episode of care.
  • The Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality is one of 14 grant recipients of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Aligning Forces for Quality initiative.
  • The Wisconsin Hospital Association's Check Point and Price Point initiatives represent a progressive association-based response to the market's demand for information on the quality and cost of hospital services.
  • The National Committee for Quality Assurance's 2005 State of Health Care Quality Report ranked six Wisconsin health maintenance organizations among the top 50 health plans. In addition, a 2006 report by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality listed Wisconsin as number one among the 50 States for overall quality of health care services.
  • The Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality has established relationships with key strategic partners, including the Wisconsin Health Information Organization; the Wisconsin Hospital Association; the Wisconsin Medical Society; the University of Wisconsin; the Medical College of Wisconsin; and MetaStar, the Wisconsin Quality Improvement Organization.
Page last reviewed April 2008
Internet Citation: Appendix B: Better Quality Information Pilot Profiles: Regional Coalition Collaboration Guide. April 2008. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://archive.ahrq.gov/professionals/quality-patient-safety/quality-resources/tools/collabguide/collabguideapb.html