Rural Health Quality Initiatives
The Flex Program provides support to critical access hospitals (CAHs) in quality improvement, quality reporting, performance improvement and benchmarking; to assist facilities seeking designation as CAHs; and to establish or expand programs for the provision of rural emergency medical services (EMS). The Flex Program aims to provide training and technical assistance to build capacity, support innovation, and promote sustainable improvement in the rural health care system. The overall goal of the Flex Program is to ensure that high quality health care services are available in rural communities and aligned with community needs. Flex Programs can be found in all states with a CAH.
The goal of MBQIP is to improve the quality of care provided in critical access hospitals (CAHs), by increasing quality data reporting by CAHs and then driving quality improvement activities based on the data. This project provides an opportunity for individual hospitals to look at their own data, measure their outcomes against other CAHs, and partner with other hospitals in the state around quality improvement initiatives to improve outcomes and provide the highest quality care to each and every one of their patients.
Improving patient safety, including diagnostic safety, is key to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) mission to support the delivery of high-quality healthcare. AHRQ recently supported the development of several resources to help prevent diagnostic safety events. AHRQ is leading Implementing Diagnostic Excellence Across Systems (IDEAS), a national study to evaluate the impact of these resources.
The Toolkit for Engaging Patients To Improve Diagnostic Safety helps patients prepare for their visit and guides clinicians to engage in active listening without interruption in the first minute of the patient encounter.
Measure Dx helps healthcare organizations detect and learn from diagnostic safety events. Key steps include preparing the organization for diagnostic safety measurement, assessing organizational readiness for change, offering specific measurement strategies, and providing guidance for analyzing data and translating findings into clinical practice.
Calibrate Dx helps clinicians improve their diagnostic decision making through a structured process of identifying and reviewing cases with feedback and tools to assess and calibrate diagnostic performance.
For more information about IDEAS or to be enrolled in the study, email IDEASproject@rand.org.
The Critical Access Hospital (CAH) Quality Infrastructure measure is a structural measure to assess CAH capacity, processes, and infrastructure for quality activities based on the nine core elements of CAH quality infrastructure. The measure is part of the Flex Program's MBQIP core measures, and is submitted annually through the National CAH Quality Inventory and Assessment ("Assessment"). This measure was developed based on findings from the 2023 Critical Access Hospital Quality Infrastructure Summit, which brought together national experts to create a set of core elements of quality infrastructure for CAHs. Current Specifications (2024) can be found here.
The Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) Program is an integral part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ National Quality Strategy and is one of the largest federal programs dedicated to improving health quality at the community level. This network of experts in quality improvement works in partnership with patients and families, providers, communities, and healthcare stakeholders in every setting in which care is delivered. QIN- QIOs assist patients and families, providers, and communities to: make care safer, support active engagement and self-management of chronic conditions, eliminate health disparities, promote best practices for healthy living, improve access to care, and make care affordable. To learn more, visit www.qioprogram.org.