AcademyHealth and The Commonwealth Fund
Announce State Quality Improvement Institute Participants!
 AcademyHealth and The Commonwealth Fund are pleased to announce the nine state teams selected to participate in the State Quality Improvement Institute—an intensive, competitively-selected effort to help states plan and implement concrete action plans to improve performance across targeted quality indicators. Colorado, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington were selected for the Institute through a competitive process designed to identify states with the commitment, leadership, and resources necessary to build on previous success and conceptualize and implement substantive new quality improvement efforts.
Background & Rationale
The U.S. health care sector continues to fail too many patients and their families seeking coordinated, quality, and efficient care. In its National Scorecard on U.S. Health System Performance, The Commonwealth Fund's Commission on a High Performance Health System found that, despite health expenditures that are twice those of the median industrialized country, the U.S. health care system falls short on key indicators of health outcomes, quality, access, efficiency, and equity. Furthermore, both The Commonwealth Fund's Commission on a High Performance Health System's State Scorecard and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's State Snapshots have documented considerable variations in health care quality by geographic region. Compounding the problem, these reports also reveal that the most vulnerable populations – those who often have the greatest need for services – are even less likely to receive quality health care.
Quality Institute Objectives
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Provide customized support to states that are seriously considering substantial quality improvement efforts
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Assess current challenges facing individual states;
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Identify appropriate diagnostic and implementation tools, analyze possible approaches and consider policy tradeoffs, and revise or refine current state-specific plans; and
Allow state participants the opportunity to network and discuss their own experiences and best practices.
Key Components of the Quality Institute
- Pre-Kick-Off Meeting State Planning Meetings: One-day site visits to each of the selected states to facilitate team planning and prepare state team members for the Quality Institute.
- Quality Institute Kick-Off Meeting: State teams will meet in June of 2008 for 2½ days with staff and faculty to discuss their state's performance on a variety of measures identified through the State Scorecard — focusing primarily on how to improve quality and efficiency.
- Post Kick-Off Follow-up and Technical Assistance: The Quality Institute will continue to provide technical support to teams as needed.
- Cyber Seminars: The Quality Institute will develop and host four cyber-seminars for interested state teams.
- Final Meeting: The Quality Institute will conclude in early spring of 2009 with a final 1½ day meeting reconvening state teams.
Important Dates & Deadlines
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January 22, 2008 – Informational conference call for those interested in applying to the Quality Institute
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February 1, 2008 – Questions and answers from the informational conference call will be posted to the Quality Institute website, along with a recording of the call.
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February 15, 2008 – Deadline for receipt of full proposals for the Quality Institute
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Late March 2008 – Notification of selection to participate in the Quality Institute.
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Late-April to early June 2008 – Preparatory site visits to states participating in the Quality Institute.
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June 25-27, 2008 – Quality Institute Kick-Off Meeting.
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July 31, 2008 – FINAL ACTION PLANS DUE
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Cyber Seminar 1: Thursday, September 4, 2008
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Cyber Seminar 2 : Tuesday, October 14, 2008 (Updated!)
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Cyber Seminar 3: Thursday, December 18, 2008
- Cyber Seminar 4: Thursday, February 12, 2009
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