Virginia Health Quality Center
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The Virginia Health Quality Center (VHQC) is the Medicare quality improvement organization for Virginia, and one of the many Quality improvement organizations (QIOs) throughout the nation. Their objective is to assess the needs, implement improvements and evaluate results as it relates to how medical care is delivered by healthcare providers within a specific target area. As the Medicare QIO for Virginia, they facilitate many of these improvements under the guidance of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
VHQC is an independent, not-for-profit corporation that provides services to a range of clients who are interested in assessing and improving the quality of healthcare for a variety of populations.
VHQC’s clients include federal and state agencies, healthcare providers, managed care organizations, and commercial insurers in Virginia and throughout the nation.
[edit] History
Established in 1984, the VHQC partners with Virginia's health care community to improve patient care for Virginia's 913,886 Medicare beneficiaries in all health care settings, including hospitals, physician offices, nursing homes and home health agencies.
the VHQC serves as the federally designated quality improvement organization for the Commonwealth of Virginia. The VHQC has held the CMS contract to provide quality improvement and Medicare beneficiary outreach services in Virginia since 1984.
The VHQC provides quality improvement assistance to Virginia's acute care hospitals and more than 700 physicians in a number of clinical topics such as heart failure, pneumonia, stroke, breast cancer and diabetes. In addition, the VHQC has implemented several local projects that take its quality improvement techniques into new arenas such as home health, mammography for at-risk populations and long-term care facilities.
The VHQC serves as an advocate for Virginia's Medicare beneficiaries, providing education and handling complaints.
Recent VHQC-initiated programs have improved the health and quality of care for a diverse cross-section of patients. The results include:
- a 26% increase in immunization rates for pneumonia in 15 participating nursing homes through a multi-month project that improved clinical procedures and standing orders;
- among patients suffering heart attacks, a more than 11% increase in patients receiving beta-blockers at discharge from the hospital to prevent future heart damage; and
- a more than 9% increase in the mammography rate for African-American women, and a reduction in the gap between African-American and Caucasian women receiving mammography screenings in the Tidewater area.
The VHQC is a 501(c) (3) not-for-profit corporation with clients in both the public and private sectors. The VHQC has more than 60 employees, including physicians, nurses, biostatisticians, health educators and public relations professionals. It is the recipient of the 2002 U.S. Senate Productivity and Quality Award Plaque for Progress in Performance Excellence, the highest level award bestowed on an organization in Virginia during 2002.
[edit] External links
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