If stand-alone quality improvement trainings aren’t helping you improve your patient outcome goals, it's time to ECQIP yourself. If you're looking for ways to engage a leadership team within your organization in support of sustainable change, it's time to ECQIP yourself.

ECQIP stands for ECHO/Collaborative Quality Improvement Project. ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) is a proven model for interactive distance learning. Collaboratives are a proven approach to supporting multiple organizations in implementing sustainable quality improvements. The ECQIP model will bring together two proven models for distance learning and process improvement – ECHO and the Collaborative Model for Improvement. The aim of this project is to assist participating health centers in reaching their self-determined quality improvement goals.   ECQIP contains several elements that are critical for reaching your quality improvement goals:      • Sustained effort to improve a specific measure over time      • Regular monitoring of that measure to assess the impact of practice changes      • Change model that is consistently applied and widely understood      • Team-based approach where everyone knows their role      • Process-oriented approach that analyzes all elements of a patient visit and other patient contacts      • Learning and improving together across health centers

 According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 30.3 million adults in the United States have diabetes, and one in four do not know they have it. Nationally, diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death. The good news is that most symptoms and complications of diabetes can be prevented by keeping the blood glucose under control, eating healthy, being physically active, working with your health care provider to keep your blood pressure and cholesterol under control, and getting the necessary screening tests as recommended.

Analyzing data helps to quantify health care processes, outcomes, patient satisfaction, and organizational structure and systems that are associated with producing high-quality health care. The diabetes measure that will be the focus for the project is:

Diabetes: Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c): Poor Control (>9%) or No Test During the Year, CMS122v5

Numerator: Patients with most recent HbA1c level performed during the measurement year that is greater than 9.0 percent OR who had no test conducted during the measurement period.

Denominator: Diabetes patients 18-75 years of age with a medical visit during the measurement period.

Practice coaching can improve many aspects of primary care. CHAD's clinical quality manager will serve as the practice coach for the participating health centers during the ECQIP year. The coach will meet with teams individually on a monthly basis throughout the duration of the project.

For more information about practice coaching, contact [email protected].

The ECQIP Advisory Committee brings partners together for collaborative planning and use of resources with the shared goal of improving diabetic disease management. Click here for a list of the 2018 Diabetes ECQIP Advisory Committee members and for more information about how organizations are collaborating with different community health centers to improve diabetes screening rates and the health of those with diabetes. 

Click here for the interactive 2018 Diabetes ECQIP calendar. In addition to tracking future events, you can find recordings and slides from previous events and trainings.

ECQIP Archive
2016-2017 Cervical Cancer

Contact
Lori Thomas
Clinical Quality Manager
605-275-2423 ext. 11
[email protected]