QUERI – Quality Enhancement Research Initiative

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Triple Aim QUERI Program

Denver, CO

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Overview:

Triple Aim QUERI Program logoThe goals of the Triple Aim QUERI (TAQ) Program are to leverage healthcare data to identify actionable care gaps – and to implement innovative healthcare interventions to improve the Triple Aims of VA healthcare. TAQ is comprised of three projects, the Multimodal Pain Care Project, the Patient Reported Health Status Project, and the Transitions of Care project. These projects identify and address gaps in care, access to care, opioid safety, telehealth technology, rural Veterans, and developing best practices.

Findings and impacts:

  • The Multimodal Pain Care Project provided data describing national trends and variation in VA multimodal pain care to VA Central Office as supporting material during testimony to the House Committee on Veterans Affairs (2/17). Information also was presented during a combined VISN, Chief Medical Officers, Quality Management Officers, and Chiefs of Staff conference call focused on opiate use – and emphasized that VA leadership support at multiple levels is critical to ensure that PACT (Patient Aligned Care Team) providers can participate in Pain ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes).
  • The Patient Reported Health Status Project developed a system whereby IVR (Interactive Voice Response) calls are triggered by notes placed in the Veteran’s electronic medical health record at the time of procedure scheduling. As systems of data acquisition have developed, pre-procedure capture rates in Denver have steadily increased from 18% in 2015 to 35% in 2016 and 46% in 2017. The revised system is now more readily adaptable and scalable to non-Denver sites.
  • The Transitions of Care Project has followed more than 500 Veterans during the transition from community hospital discharge back to VA primary care since June 2017. This project rolled out at a second site in early 2018.

Principal Investigator: Catherine Battaglia, PhD, RN (catherine.battaglia@va.gov).

Operational Partners: Office of Specialty Care Services (SCS), VHA Pain Management, National Cardiology Program and CART, Office of Analytics and Business Intelligence, Quality, Safety and Value, Office of Rural Health (ORH), Pharmacy Benefits Management Services (PBM).