FROM: Theodore O. Will, Chief Executive Officer
DATE: Aug 13, 2002
SUBJECT: Health Care Quality Improvement 7th SOW Activities Inpatient Projects
IPRO CONTACTS:
Charles Stimler, M.D., M.P.H., Clinical Coordinator, x-634
Marguerite Shaffer, R.N., C.P.H.Q., Director, Downstate Improvement Strategies, x-634
This is to inform you that the 7th Scope of Work (SOW) began on August 1, 2002 and will continue through 2005. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has renewed IPRO's three-year Medicare contract and we look forward to working with you to continue our joint effort to improve the quality of healthcare provided to Medicare beneficiaries across the state of New York.
Under this new scope of work many projects are continuing from the 6th SOW. IPRO's Health Care Quality Improvement Department will continue to assist acute care hospitals on inpatient topic areas of Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI), Congestive Heart Failure (CHF), and Community Acquired Pneumonia (CAP). Those projects in the outpatient setting that will be continued in the current SOW include outpatient pneumonia (immunizations), mammography, and diabetes. The HCQIP department will also continue working with Certified Home Health Agencies.
CMS has announced several changes to the scope of work and they include a new inpatient topic called the Surgical Infection Prevention Project (SIP). This is a national collaborative aimed at reducing surgical infections for commonly performed procedures. Another change involves the introduction of hospital data collection which will be initiated under the 7th SOW contract. CMS has worked hard to align the national topic indicators with JCAHO core measures and has developed a compatible data abstraction instrument that will soon be available for distribution at no charge to hospitals. IPRO will use this hospital specific data to work closely with providers to bring about healthcare system improvements. A major new CMS quality improvement initiative will involve IPRO working with skilled nursing facilities throughout the state.
A summary description of the 7th SOW CMS Quality of Care Measures for both inpatient and outpatient topic areas. To educate the provider community on important changes from the 6th SOW to the 7th SOW, we are planning a series of regional meetings in the fall. Details on these meetings will be forwarded to your HCQIP Liaison shortly.
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If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Marguerite Shaffer, Director, Improvement Strategies at extension 356, or via email at nypro.mshaffer@sdps.org.
We thank you for your continued cooperation and commitment to quality improvement.