Quality Improvement in Indiana: Thank You for Your Partnership

Qsource’s Quality Innovation Network -Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO) built a community of stakeholders to deliver better care in Indiana for more than 10 years. Our current Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) 12th Statement of Work (SOW) contract ended on November 7, 2024.

Qsource is thankful for your commitment and willingness to learn and grow together as we worked to improve the lives of people with Medicare in Indiana. Your partnership led to successful improvement in the state, including:

  • More than 2,400 on-site technical visits to nursing homes
  • Overall adverse drug events in nursing home decreased by 19.9%
  • Resident and staff COVID vaccination rates in nursing home increased by 100%
  • Blood pressure control in patients with hypertension improved by 156%
  • Referrals to cardiac rehab for appropriate patients increased by 33.2%
  • Number of diabetics with hemoglobin A1c out of control reduced by nearly 31%

Looking ahead, CMS released a new, five-year quality improvement contract for the work we have been doing together. Stakeholders will include acute care hospitals, rural and critical access hospitals, nursing homes and outpatient clinical practices. This new work aims to meet providers and practitioners where they are with their quality improvement activities, with a focus on the following initiatives:

  • Preventing and managing chronic diseases, including diabetes, hypertension and chronic kidney disease with access to community resources and education.
  • Continuing to improve hospitals and nursing home stays with reduced healthcare acquired infections, adverse drugs events and falls.
  • Improving support and screening for depressive symptoms and substance use disorders and managing chronic pain.
  • Improving care coordination across settings with reducing readmissions and avoidable emergency room visits.
  • Developing patient and family advisory councils to improve engagement of beneficiaries and families as active partners in care and quality.
  • Supporting providers’ quality management structure, being attentive to emergency preparedness, cybersecurity, climate change, workforce planning and supply chains and shortages.

Qsource is planning to be involved with the next program in Indiana. If you have any questions, please email Tammy Geltmaker at [email protected]. We will continue to post updates here as more information is available.