Center for Quality Management in Public Health
CQM Official Opening
6/2000
The VA Center for Quality Management in HIV Care (CQM)
held its official opening with a briefing for
legislative staff on Friday, June 30, 2000. The
Center is a field office of the VAHQ AIDS Service
and Lawrence R. Deyton, MSPH, MD, Director, AIDS
Service and Victoria Davey, Deputy Director, AIDS
Service were in attendance. Legislative
representatives present at the opening included
staff from the offices of Representatives Sam Farr,
Tom Lantos, and Zoe Loftgren.
The CQM was established in September, 1999. Our
mission is to catalyze continual innovation and
improvement in VA HIV clinical care via the use of
quality management techniques and the translation of
research into practice. Our goal is to maintain and
assure appropriate, cost-effective high quality HIV
care for veterans.
The CQM catalyzes innovation and improvement in
patient care using the VA system as a "working
laboratory." This is possible because of a unique
resource of the VA, a real-time clinical HIV
database. While maintaining patient anonymity, the
database can track service utilization (including
pharmaceuticals) and clinical outcomes. It is the
largest database resource of this kind in the world.
The service utilization and patient outcome data are
continually reviewed, allowing information to be
regularly disseminated to VA providers on how to
better manage individual patients with HIV and how
to improve systems of HIV care. The Center also
takes a lead role in working with private industry
to assess the clinical effectiveness of newer
technologies, such as those in diagnostics,
therapeutics and information systems.
HIV/AIDS is a rapidly changing area of health care.
Bench research is being translated quickly into
clinical care; and clinical care standards change
almost monthly. Maintaining and assuring
appropriate, high-quality HIV care is crucial for
the VA system to insure that veterans with HIV
receive the highest quality of care available.
Additional benefits are to contain health care costs
and to protect against the serious public health
implications of failed treatment regimens such as
the transmission of drug-resistant virus.
The VA expects that the establishment of this new
Center for Quality Management in HIV Care will
provide a model for other health systems, as well as
for other diseases. The Center is located in the VA
Palo Alto Health Care System and is directed by the
VA AIDS Service office at VA Headquarters in
Washington, DC
The Center Director is Sophia Chang, MD, MPH, who
was previously the Director of HIV Programs for the
Kaiser Family Foundation. Our professional full-time
staff are Russ Provenzo, RN, MBA, who has many years
of experience in private sector management of HIV
care; and Larry Mole, PharmD, who has significant VA
experience, including HIV program and pharmacy
management. In addition, Mark Holodniy, MD, FACP,
Director of the VAPAHCS AIDS Research Center, and
Doug Owens, MD, MSc, Health Services Researcher,
devote part of their time to CQM activities.
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