Overview: AHRQ Learning Network for Chartered Value Exchanges

Overview

The AHRQ Learning Network for Chartered Value Exchanges (CVEs) is a national program supported by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Formed in 2007, the Learning Network brings together 24 CVEs, or community quality collaborative, from across the country. In aggregate, these collaboratives involve more than 550 health care leaders and represent more than 124 million lives, more than one-third of the U.S. population. The collaboratives are multistakeholder initiatives with a mission of quality improvement and transparency.

Contents

Three Key Principles
CVE Stakeholders Represent Rich and Diverse Leaders in the Community
24 Chartered Value Exchanges
Interesting Facts About CVEs
Focus of AHRQ Learning Network Activities
Coordination with Other Community-Based Quality Improvement Initiatives

Three Key Principles

• All health care is "local." National goals and common standards are important, but real improvement needs to take place in local settings where the various stakeholders know and work with one another.
• Transparency in measuring and reporting accurate and meaningful information on quality and cost is the key to helping providers improve and consumers become engaged managers of their own health and health care.
• Collaboratives involving key stakeholder groups-public and private payers, providers, plans, and consumer organizations, and, in some cases, State data organizations, quality improvement organizations, and health information exchanges- hold the promise to foster needed reforms.

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CVE Stakeholders Represent Rich and Diverse Leaders in the Community

CVE stakeholders are a rich and diverse group that spans purchasers, consumer organizations, health plans, and providers.

• Purchasers, such as employers, employer coalitions, and Medicaid agencies.
• Consumer Organizations, such as consumer health coalitions, AARP, Center for Medical Consumers, and area agencies on aging.
• Health plans, such as regional and national commercial plans and Medicaid health plans.
• Providers, such as hospital executives, American College of Physicians, State medical societies, and academic medical centers.
• Others, such as State data organizations, Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs), and Health Information Exchanges.

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24 Chartered Value Exchanges

 1. California Chartered Value Exchange
 2. Colorado Value Exchange
 3. Connecticut—eHealthConnecticut, Inc.
 4. Indiana—Quality Health First Program
 5. Kansas—Kansas City Quality Improvement Consortium
 6. Kentucky—Greater Louisville Value Exchange Partnership
 7. Louisiana Health Care Quality Forum
 8. Maine Chartered Value Exchange Alliance
 9. Massachusetts Chartered Value Exchange
 10. Michigan—Alliance for Health
 11. Michigan—Greater Detroit Area Health Council
 12. Michigan Health Information Alliance
 13. Minnesota Healthcare Value Exchange
 14. Nevada Partnership for Value-driven Health Care
 15. New York Quality Alliance
 16. Ohio—Health Improvement Collaborative of Greater Cincinnati and HealthBridge
 17. Oregon Health Care Quality Corporation
 18. Pennsylvania—Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative
 19. Pennsylvania—Aligning Forces for Quality-South Central PA
 20. Tennessee—Healthy Memphis Common Table
 21. Utah Partnership for Value-driven Health Care
 22. Virginia Health Care Alliance
 23. Washington—Puget Sound Health Alliance
 24. Wisconsin Healthcare Value Exchange
 

Additional contact information is available at http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/value/cvecontacts.htm.

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Interesting Facts About CVEs

• 24 CVEs represent efforts in 22 States.
• 13 CVEs have a statewide focus; 11 have a substate or regional focus.
• 13 CVEs predated the call for CVEs, while 11 formed for the purpose of becoming CVEs.
• 8 CVEs sponsor a hospital or physician public report and an additional 5 are preparing to do so. Eleven CVEs are not directly involved in public reporting, because one or more of their affiliate organizations already produce a public report.
• All 24 CVEs are in a State with a statewide hospital inpatient database.
• QIOs are stakeholders in 21 of the 24 CVEs.

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Focus of AHRQ Learning Network Activities

Through AHRQ's national Learning Network, CVE members learn from each other and from experts, sharing experiences and best practices in the following areas:

• Collaborative leadership and sustainability.
• Consumer engagement.
• Quality and efficiency measurement.
• Public reporting.
• Provider incentives.
• Consumer incentives.
• Collaborative strategies to improve quality and efficiency.
• Health information technology/health information exchange.

Technical assistance is provided to CVE members on three levels: networkwide, cluster, and one on one. Various topics and issues are addressed through Web seminars (two or three per month), Internet chat forum (on a private, members-only Web site with information and resources on topics of interest to CVEs), in-person meetings (one or two per year), and one-on-one consultation with experts. AHRQ contracts with The Lewin Group to provide technical assistance for the Learning Network.

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Coordination with Other Community-Based Quality Improvement Initiatives

To facilitate planning and coordination at both the national level and in CVE communities, AHRQ regularly meets with leadership of other key community-based quality improvement initiatives, including but not limited to: the Quality Alliance Steering Committee, and in particular its National-Regional Implementation Workgroup; the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Aligning Forces for Quality Program; the Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement; the National Business Coalition on Health; and the National Quality Forum.

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