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Hospital Quality Improvement Initiative

An innovative approach to build high-reliability hospitals in rural and underserved areas

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services named nine organizations, including TMF Health Quality Institute, as Hospital Quality Improvement Contractors (HQICs) for the CMS Quality Improvement Program. The new CMS Hospital Quality Improvement (HQI) initiative builds on the achievements from CMS’ previous initiatives, Hospital Improvement Innovation Network and Hospital Engagement Networks, with a keen focus to improve patient safety, quality and outcomes in rural, critical access and vulnerable populations.

As an HQIC, TMF will collaborate with participating hospitals to focus on reducing all-cause patient harm and readmissions in rural, medically underserved and vulnerable populations. TMF will facilitate health care transformation by working with participating hospitals to identify, use and spread evidence-based practices, and through the systematic use of quality improvement science. As an organization with a history of strong connectedness to hospital organizations, TMF will leverage our ability to support hospitals by committing to challenging goals and remaining in on-going action to adapt and test practices in support of achieving those goals.

Goals and Areas of Focus

In alignment with the CMS Rural Health Strategy, TMF’s initiative focuses on engaging rural and critical access hospitals and hospitals serving vulnerable populations. TMF provides quality improvement and technical assistance support to address opportunities in the following areas:

  • Patient safety
  • Patient and family engagement
  • Leadership engagement
  • Health care disparities
  • Public health emergencies

For next steps on participation or additional information, visit Hospital Quality Improvement Initiative.

Your hospital and providers work hard every day to provide safe reliable quality care. TMF invites you to partner with us to work to improve the effectiveness, efficiency, economy and quality of services delivered to the patients you serve.

Supporting Community-based Hospitals

TMF has extensive experience in supporting community-based hospitals in rural and traditionally underserved areas. TMF health quality specialists work closely with health care facilities to improve overall performance on patient safety topics, reduce adverse drug events and hospital readmissions, and decrease opioid misuse. We provide support to hospitals reporting data to the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN), help resolve Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement (QAPI) citations, and assist critical access hospitals (CAH) in the transition to become Rural Emergency Hospitals.

TMF is a firm believer in improving health care through quality improvement and education. The team uses innovation and evidence-based methodology to drive results and implement data-driven quality improvement interventions, including creating an on-demand learning series and hosting topic-specific affinity groups to promote peer-to-peer sharing and group problem-solving. Educational opportunities are tailored to meet the needs of health care providers and their consumers.

TMF supported the now-ended Hospital Improvement Innovation Networks (HIIN) until 2020 focusing on harm reduction for all patients. Responsibilities for the HIIN included recruiting hospitals and providing one-on-one consultation to support their performance improvement efforts and foster a culture of safety. TMF also designed learning curriculum, facilitated virtual learning and produced educational materials for a variety of patient safety topics.