Madison, WI – Sept. 4, 2024 – Superior Health Quality Alliance (Superior Health), a health care improvement organization serving Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois, is pleased to announce its bid and plans for continuing to improve the care and health of older adults in the next five-year Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) program, called 13th Statement of Work (SOW), which also includes Indiana and Ohio.
The organization has a proven record of leadership and innovation in quality improvement initiatives in communities throughout the region, and of leveraging the breadth and depth of its longstanding and trusted relationships with health care organizations, state agencies, professional and trade associations and other partners. The bid for the CMS 13th SOW represents an opportunity to extend this legacy and continue its mission to improve the health of Medicare beneficiaries.
“The work we do in partnership with CMS is critical to the fundamental health of our communities,” said Tania Daniels, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Superior Health. “Through this bid, we aim to continue our work in transforming patient care, ensuring that the highest standards of safety and quality are upheld across the care continuum.”
Superior Health is an active participant in the Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO) program. This initiative plays a crucial role in uniting Medicare beneficiaries, providers, and communities to enhance patient safety, promote healthier communities, and improve the coordination of care. The program’s regional focus ensures that best practices are tailored to local needs while spreading effective solutions quickly.
Superior Health is also pleased to announce a strategic partnership with Qsource, a prominent player in health care quality initiatives for over 50 years. Mary-Lyn Baldauf, Qsource CEO, said “This partnership underscores both companies’ commitment to delivering exceptional health care outcomes.” Under this partnership, Qsource will leverage its expertise in Quality Improvement and Quality Assurance, patient safety, education, communications and data analytics in Indiana to complement the expertise of Superior Health. “The driving force for this collaboration is to realize an immediate and sustainable impact for patients and communities,” said Baldauf.
Daniels expressed confidence in Superior Health’s ability to meet the objectives set forth in the CMS 13th SOW. “Our organization is uniquely equipped to drive impactful improvements and support CMS in achieving its vision of quality care for all Medicare beneficiaries,” said Daniels. “We have a proven track record of leveraging the strengths of our member organizations, collaborating across task orders and improving care for beneficiaries in the communities we serve.”
Superior Health is also launching a new website, demonstrating its dedication to transparency, resource-sharing and collaboration. It serves as a hub for the latest information on quality improvement efforts, offering tools and best practices to support health care providers and community partners in delivering better care.
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Superior Health Quality Alliance is comprised of eight member organizations – all with long track records of success driving achievement of Medicare quality improvement goals. Member organizations include the Illinois Health and Hospital Association, MetaStar, Michigan Health & Hospital Association, Midwest Kidney Network, Minnesota Hospital Association, iMPROve Health, Stratis Health and the Wisconsin Hospital Association. Our diverse capabilities and commitment to excellence form a comprehensive quality improvement organization dedicated to collaborative approaches to improve the health of the communities we serve. Learn more, access the Superior Health website.
Qsource, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Tennessee, works with health care providers, partners, patients and other stakeholders to continually improve health care quality, and ensure providers meet regulatory requirements. For over 50 years, Qsource has been a nationwide leader in Quality Improvement and Quality Assurance. Qsource has touched a wide range of health care settings, serving 16 million Medicare users, supporting 21 thousand skilled nursing facilities, assisting 64 thousand ESRD patients and fostering over 60 thousand community coalitions. Working with providers, partners, patients and other stakeholders, Qsource equips health care institutions with the tools and knowledge necessary to improve quality for years to come. Learn more, access the Qsource website.
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Jacquie Robinson
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Superior Health Quality Alliance (Superior Health) is joining a nationwide training program to help keep COVID-19 from spreading in area nursing homes and to prepare and equip staff so that they can better protect residents and themselves.
The program is part of the National Nursing Home COVID-19 Action Network supported by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in collaboration with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and Project ECHO. Superior Health is participating in The Network as an official Training Center for nursing homes.
This program has six goals:
- Keep the virus from entering nursing homes.
- Find out early if residents and staff have been infected.
- Prevent the spread of the virus to staff, residents, and visitors.
- Provide safe and appropriate care to residents with mild and asymptomatic cases.
- Ensure staff have the knowledge, skills, and confidence to implement best-practice safety measures to protect residents and themselves.
- Reduce social isolation for residents, families, and staff.
To do this, The Network embraces an “all teach, all learn” philosophy in which participants both receive education in best practices from renowned experts and learn from their peers.
Superior Health will lead 16 virtual learning sessions with nursing home teams in simultaneous cohorts. Each Network session is designed to be interactive—to hear from nursing home staff about the challenges they are facing and provide practical solutions. During each session, nursing home staff will discuss real cases of front-line problems with both experts and their peers. In this way, staff have a chance to share best practices and learn from their peers while benefiting from the guidance of nursing home and quality improvement experts. Each session will include a brief lecture or lesson paired with case presentations and discussion, followed by a Q&A forum.
“Cases of COVID-19 continue to rise in our region,” shares Kelsey Ostergren, Program Manager, “Through participation in the AHRQ ECHO National Nursing Home COVID-19 Action Network, Superior Health is working to reduce cases, by providing training and support to nursing home staff on best practices for protecting patients, staff and visitors from deadly COVID-19 infection and spread.”
As a designated training center Superior Health will also provide rapid response mentorship for any nursing home that experiences a sudden increase in COVID-19.
Project ECHO® (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) is a movement to demonopolize knowledge and amplify the capacity to provide best practice care for underserved people all over the world.
Contact Superior Health Quality Alliance, 833-821-7472.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has awarded a four-year contract to IPRO to serve as a Hospital Quality Improvement Contractor (HQIC) within its Network of Quality Improvement and Innovation Contractors (NQIIC). Within that contract, Superior Health Quality Alliance (Superior Health) will serve hospitals in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
HQICs will provide targeted quality improvement assistance to small, rural and critical access hospitals and those hospitals that have been identified by CMS as requiring technical assistance. CMS has directed HQICs to use innovation to drive results and to implement data-driven quality improvement interventions to assist hospitals in ensuring the safety and quality of care delivered to all Medicare beneficiaries.
HQICs will partner with the targeted hospitals to help address needs such as infection control, pandemic readiness and response, a concerted response to the opioid epidemic and patient safety.
“We are proud to partner with a nationally recognized Quality Improvement Organization, IPRO. We are excited to provide continued support to improve the quality of care with hospitals and health systems in our region,” said Tania Daniels, MBA, Chief Executive Officer for Superior Health.
About Superior Health Quality Alliance: Superior Health Quality Alliance is comprised of eight member organizations – all with long track records of success driving achievement of Medicare quality improvement goals. Member organizations include the Illinois Health and Hospital Association, MetaStar, Michigan Health & Hospital Association, Midwest Kidney Network, Minnesota Hospital Association, iMPROve Health, Stratis Health and the Wisconsin Hospital Association. Our diverse capabilities and commitment to excellence form a comprehensive quality improvement organization dedicated to collaborative approaches to improve the health of the communities we serve.
For more information on hospital quality improvement, please visit www.cms.gov.
Contact: Superior Health Quality Alliance, 833-821-7472.
Tania Daniels, PT, MBA, has been named Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Superior Health Quality Alliance (Superior Health). Daniels took the reigns of the nonprofit joint venture Monday, following the departure of Jesi Wang, MBA, who stepped down to serve as CEO of MetaStar.
“Tania Daniels brings impressive experience to this alliance and has demonstrated success in leading teams across organizations,” said Superior Health Board Chair Jennifer Lundblad. “Our Board is grateful she has stepped forward to lead our organization into the next phase as we begin working to improve the quality of health and health care for health care consumers, patients, clinicians, health care organizations and communities.”
Daniels also serves as Vice President Quality and Patient Safety at the Minnesota Hospital Association, where she has been instrumental in multiple initiatives for the past 20 years. Daniels has extensive experience in quality improvement and patient safety, and with Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services contracts and programs, including the Hospital Improvement and Innovation (HIIN) program, through her tenure at the Minnesota Hospital Association (MHA).
Contact: Superior Health Quality Alliance, 833-821-7472.
On November 8, 2019, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) awarded a five-year contract to Superior Health Quality Alliance (Superior Health) to serve as a Quality Innovation Network – Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO) under the recently launched 12th Statement of Work.
QIN-QIOs serving under the 12th Statement of Work will provide targeted assistance to nursing homes and communities in small and rural practices, those serving the most vulnerable populations, and those in need of customized quality improvement. Through this body of work, CMS is focusing on results, protecting taxpayer dollars, and most importantly, ensuring the safety and quality of care delivered to every beneficiary.
“Superior Health is proud to build on the experience of our partner organizations and continue providing technical assistance and support for QIN-QIO initiatives in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin,” said Superior Health Chief Executive Officer Jesi Wang, MBA, CPHQ.
Superior Health will be responsible for improving quality in poor-performing nursing homes, as well as small and rural communities and those serving vulnerable populations by:
- Improving Behavioral Health Outcomes – Including Opioid Misuse
- Increasing Patient Safety
- Increasing Chronic Disease Self-Management
- Increasing the Quality of Care Transitions
- Improving Nursing Home Quality
Superior Health can be contacted by visiting www.superiorhealthqa.org.
For more information on the Quality Innovation Networks – Quality Improvement Organizations, please visit: www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/QualityImprovementOrgs/index.
Contact: Superior Health Quality Alliance, 833-821-7472.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services selected Superior Health Quality Alliance as a Prime awardee of the Network of Quality Improvement and Innovation Contractor. This designation will allow NQIICs to bid on Task Orders over the next five years. As a Prime NQIIC awardee partnering with other Quality Improvement contractors under the new CMS Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract mechanism to support quality improvement efforts, each NQIIC may serve as:
- Quality Improvement Experts
- Facilitators/change agents for healthcare transformation by achieving bold aims at a high value
- Innovators of quality improvement
As a NQIIC awardee, Superior Health Quality Alliance has demonstrated healthcare quality improvement expertise. Services supported by some of the NQIIC awardees may include:
- Provide direct technical assistance in specific areas of healthcare quality improvement (e.g., patient safety, opioid misuse, nursing home quality, etc.)
- Seek and gain commitments from patients, providers and stakeholders to achieve aims
- Use a Human Centered Design that involves teaming with patient and family members to improve healthcare processes and outcomes.
- Focused on helping providers and healthcare organizations to achieve quantitative results for improved outcomes, lower costs, better care, less provider burden, greater transparency and more.
- Supporting a diverse array of organizations and populations, including: rural providers, vulnerable beneficiaries, clinical practices, hospitals, nursing homes, dialysis facilities and more.
- Support providers in efficient use of Health Information Technology and interoperability
- Serve as backbone organizations to form and engage Community Coalitions
- Convene and support Learning and Action Networks (LANs)