Grants Approved, 2004–2005 Task Force on the Future of Health Insurance Medicare's Future Health Care in New York City Health Care Quality Improvement and Efficiency Special Populations (Quality of Care for Underserved Populations, Commonwealth Fund/Harvard University Fellowship in Minority Health Policy, Child Development and Preventive Care, Picker/Commonwealth Program on Quality of Care for Frail Elders) Patient-Centered Primary Care Initiative International Program in Health Policy and Practice Communications Organizations Working with Foundations Summation of Program Authorizations Printable version of this article (50 pages)

Center for Health Policy Development $132,196.00 Enhancing the Effectiveness of State Adverse Event Reporting Systems and Feedback to Hospitals Twenty-two states have mandated reporting of medical errors by hospitals. Experience has shown, however, that chronic underreporting and poor feedback are limiting the potential of state reporting systems to improve the safety of care. The National Academy for State Health Policy will convene a summit of state regulators and hospital administrators to address barriers to complete data reporting and feedback. The project team will prepare a Web-based toolkit to assist state reporting system administrators, hospital officials, and other key stakeholders in ensuring safer hospital care. Jill Rosenthal, M.P.H. Project Manager National Academy for State Health Policy 50 Monument Square, Suite 502 Portland, ME 04101 Tel: (207) 874-6524 jrosenthal@nashp.org Health Research and Educational Trust $323,136.00 Assessing and Improving Patient Safety in Ambulatory Care Frances Cooke Macgregor Grant Medical and surgical procedures, once performed only in hospitals, now routinely take place in ambulatory care settings. Despite this shift, most information about health care safety applies mainly to hospitals; little is known about how the care provided in ambulatory settings compares. For this project, a national survey of group physician practices conducted in collaboration with the Medical Group Management Association will furnish new data on the current state of ambulatory care safety and identify areas for improvement. Project staff will develop the survey instrument with the input of experts in patient safety. Data from the survey, together with prior and ongoing Fund-supported work assessing medication practices in U.S. hospitals, will form the basis for the design of future interventions to improve the safety of care. Mary A. Pittman, Dr.P.H. President One North Franklin Street, Suite 2800 Chicago, IL 60606 Tel: (312) 422-2622 mpittman@aha.org Massachusetts General Hospital $472,759.00 The Commonwealth Fund Quality Improvement Colloquia, Series 3 The five Quality Improvement Colloquia held so far have brought together approximately 100 of the nation's foremost leaders in health policy, health care delivery, and health services research to address the most pressing issues in the field of quality improvement. The grant covering the second colloquia series has been supporting meetings on overuse of health care services, clinical performance assessment, and implications of the new Medicare law for quality, as well as a monthly electronic newsletter. This grant will support a third series of colloquia on patient safety, measurement of hospital performance, and a topic to be determined. Fund and project staff also will continue hosting online debates on selected quality improvement topics and begin a new series of case studies of innovative improvement practices, which will be profiled in the monthly newsletter and posted on the Fund's Web site. David Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.P. Director, Institute for Health Policy 50 Staniford Street, 9th Floor Boston, MA 02114 Tel: 617-726-5212 dblumenthal@partners.org MedStar Research Institute $224,601.00 Evaluating the Impact of Electronic Medical Records and Interactive Decision-Support Systems on Obstetric Care Quality and Efficiency Electronic medical records linked to physician order entry and clinical decision support are gaining wider currency in health care. There is only limited evidence, however, regarding the impact of "intelligent" technologies on health care quality and efficiency. Focusing on the obstetric care provided in four hospitals, this project will evaluate the extent to which electronic medical records and interactive decision-support systems, used at the point of care, can improve physicians' adherence to best practices and reduce medical errors. The evaluation will also assess the financial return on investing in such tools, as well as potential changes in malpractice liability. Menachem Miodovnik, Ph.D. Chairman, Department of Obstetrics Washington Hospital Center 110 Irving Street, NW Washington, DC 20010 Tel: (202) 877-6144 menachem.miodovnik@medstar.net National Committee for Quality Assurance $279,181.00 Developing Standard Measures of Physician Quality and Efficiency Across the country, coalitions of health plans, employers, and physician organizations are collecting and disseminating information about the quality of care doctors provide. Lack of standardized performance measures, however, can create confusion for providers, consumers, and purchasers. It can also add to administrative complexity and limit opportunities to compare performance data. The National Committee for Quality Assurance will create a set of standardized performance metrics for gauging the quality and costs of primary care, as well as the care provided by specialist physicians and physician groups. These measures, which will be equivalent to Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS) health plan quality indicators, could be applied nationally by the private sector as well as by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Joachim Roski, Ph.D. Vice President, Quality Measurement 2000 L Street, N.W., Suite 500 Washington, DC 20036 Tel: (202)955-5139 roski@ncqa.org Primary Care Development Corporation $265,688.00 Sustaining and Spreading Learning Collaboratives: Ingredients for Success Although learning collaboratives can improve the performance of health care organizations, sustaining these improvements and communicating them to other organizations will require the additional work of establishing processes and creating system changes. Building on previous Fund support for a series of community health center collaboratives led by New York City's Primary Care Development Corporation, this project will study up to three collaborative-sponsoring organizations, as well as approximately 25 participating teams, to determine what organizational characteristics contribute to the successful achievement, maintenance, and spread of improvements. This knowledge will enhance the efforts of other health care organizations to improve quality. Mathew Chin, M.A. Director of Healthcare 22 Cortlandt Street, 12th Floor New York, NY 10007 Tel: (212) 693-1850 ext. 113 matthew@pcdcny.org Regents of the University of Minnesota $132,960.00 Exploring Performance-Based Payment Strategies for Nursing Home Care in Minnesota Reimbursement systems powerfully influence the behavior of nursing home operators. Traditional "case-mix" payment systems create major disadvantages for those homes that provide resident-centered care. Seeking to align payment with performance, the Minnesota legislature is considering enacting a new payment system that would reward high-quality, high-efficiency providers. This project will develop models to help nursing homes and legislators estimate the financial benefits and costs of operating under the proposed system. The investigators will also describe the current relationship between quality and cost among different types of Minnesota nursing homes. Together, these analyses will help Minnesota's legislature assess the merits of establishing a pay-for-performance system. Robert L. Kane, M.D. Professor 420 Delaware Street, S.E. MMC 197, D351 Minneapolis, MN 55455 Tel: (612) 624-1185 kanexoo1@umn.edu Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania $220,366.00 Coordinating Care Between Hospital and Home: Translating Research into Practice, Phase 2 Coordinating the care provided to extremely frail older adults following their discharge from the hospital significantly reduces the need for subsequent readmission. To promote adoption of this model of care coordination, the project team is collaborating with the Aetna Corporation to devise a workable program for patients enrolled in managed care. With support from the Fund and the Jacob and Valeria Langeloth Foundation, the research team laid the groundwork for implementing the advanced practice nurse model in Phase 1. In Phase 2, project staff will test the model's impact on clinical outcomes, costs, and patient satisfaction in a portion of Aetna's mid-Atlantic market. If the intervention proves successful, Aetna will consider offering the service as a defined benefit. Project findings, which will be shared with other insurers, could also inform the development of a transitional care benefit for Medicare or Medicaid. Mary D. Naylor, Ph.D., R.N., F.A.A.N. Professor of Gerontology School of Nursing 420 Guardian Drive, Room NEB364 Philadelphia, PA 19104-6096 Tel: (215) 898-6088 naylor@nursing.upenn.edu University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill $298,246.00 Quality Snapshots Series The Fund's series of chartbooks on the quality of U.S. health care has been widely praised and highly valued by thousands of readers, among them health care providers, researchers, policy leaders, and child health advocates. The project team will bolster the successful chartbook series with Web-based, interactive Powerpoint charts-Quality Snapshots-that provide updated data on selected quality indicators included in previous chartbooks as well as new information on additional quality indicators and emerging health care issues. Twice yearly, the Fund will release 25 of these charts through its Web site, with additional dissemination through e-mail alerts and possibly other electronic media. By maintaining a spotlight on key quality-of-care issues, Quality Snapshots will aid the efforts of providers and policymakers to identify problem areas and institute improvements. Sheila Leatherman Research Professor 2211 West 49th Street Minneapolis, MN 55419 Tel: 612 922-0220 sheilaleatherman@aol.com Small Grants—Health Care Quality Improvement and Efficiency American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation $28,000.00 and $48,200.00 Stepping Up to the Plate: Organized Physician Leadership and the Quality Agenda, Phases 1 and 2 Daniel B. Wolfson, M.H.S.A. Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer 510 Walnut Street, Suite 1700 Philadelphia, PA 19106 Tel: (301) 589-4066 dwolfson@abim.org Brain Trauma Foundation $40,000.00 Adoption of Standards of Care for Brain Trauma Patients: A Case Study Laura Iacono, M.S., R.N. Quality Improvement Program Director 523 East 72 Street New York, NY 10021 Tel: (212) 772-0608 liancono@braintrauma.org Health Tech Strategies, LLC $7,500.00 2005-2006 Capitol Hill "Steering Committee on Telehealth and Healthcare Informatics" Educational Series and Technology Demonstration Neal Neuberger President 6612 Brawner Street McLean, VA 22101 Tel: (703) 790-4933 nealn@hlthtech.com Harris Interactive, Inc. $12,500.00 Strategic Health Perspectives Katherine Binns, M.B.A. Senior Vice President, Health Care 111 Fifth Avenue, 8th Floor New York, NY 10003 Tel: (212) 539-9629 kbinns@harrisinteractive.com National Business Coalition on Health $25,000.00 A Call to Action to the Business Coalitions to Foster Patient-Centered Care Using "How's Your Health" Suzanne Mercure Project Director 235 Smithfield Way Fredricksburg, VA 22406 Tel: 703-845-7712 mercuresuz@aol.com University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill $31,695.00 Expansion of the Chartbook on Quality of Care for Elderly Medicare Beneficiaries Sheila Leatherman Research Professor 2211 West 49th Street Minneapolis, MN 55419 Tel: 612 922-0220 sheilaleatherman@aol.com     Previous | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 | Next Previous Article | Next Article