If your hospital was selected by CMS for inclusion in this initiative, you can learn more here:

• Medicare QIOs and Patient Safety
• Medicare QIOs and Hospitals
• Quality Improvement Organization Activities

Hospital Activities

Quality Improvement Assistance and Resources

Because health care is a complex business, the pace of change can be slow. TMF is committed to partnering with hospitals to accelerate change and measurably improve systems of care.

We offer a variety of quality improvement activities to help hospitals improve health care processes, while maintaining operational efficiencies. We invite you to take advantage of the opportunities we offer to improve patient care, meet quality-related accreditation and regulatory requirements, and improve your bottom line.

HPMP

Resources for monitoring and preventing Medicare payment errors can be found on the Hospital Payment Monitoring Program (HPMP) site.

Objective

TMF’s objective is to help hospitals achieve statewide improvement on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) national quality indicators. CMS has partnered with the Joint Commission (JCAHO) to align both organizations’ health care indicators, which include the following clinical areas:

• Acute myocardial infarction
• Heart failure
• Pneumonia
• Surgical care

Benefits of Participation

When your hospital collaborates with TMF, it receives free quality improvement resources and assistance to improve health care processes. Specifically, we can help your facility achieve the following:

• Decreased operational costs through improved care processes and shortened lengths of stay
• Increased patient health and satisfaction
• Improved performance on CMS/JCAHO quality measures
• Assistance in meeting accreditation or regulatory requirements
• Insights from networking with other hospitals to share quality improvement practices
• Identification of benchmark care processes from hospitals with demonstrated success in improving performance on quality indicators
• The ability to use data reports that provide a comparison of your hospital to others in Texas and your region with similar bed size
• An enhanced reputation in your community by demonstrating your hospital’s commitment to quality health care

TMF Quality Improvement Activities and Resources

TMF offers the following quality improvement activities and resources:

• Collaborative projects that assist hospitals in using rapid cycles to test process changes while sharing experiences with peer hospitals
• Teleconferences/Web-based seminars with presentations from clinical experts and benchmark hospitals
• Work groups and group e-mail lists that promote sharing among hospital peers
• CME/CNE sponsored programs
• Publication and distribution of intervention tools
• CMS Abstraction and Reporting Tool (CART) to measure performance on CMS quality indicators
• QualityNet that allows providers and TMF to share confidential information securely and access comparative data reports over the Internet
• Technical support on public reporting of data
• Medicare Quality Improvement Community (MedQIC) Web site that contains quality improvement resources for practitioners and providers

Additional Information

For more information on TMF’s quality improvement services, please contact:

Becky Heinsohn, RN, CPHQ
1-866-439-5863
bheinsohn@txqio.sdps.org

Susan Purcell, RN 
1-866-439-5863
spurcell@txqio.sdps.org

For information on TMF's review of medical care and services provided to Medicare beneficiaries, click here.