Collaborations

In 1997, a group of five hospitals joined with the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation and Blue Care Network to study variation in angioplasty procedures and treatment. The effort resulted in dramatic decreases in emergency bypass surgeries and other complications and an annual statewide savings of $15.2 million.

Now, almost 15 years later, eight more initiatives have launched to address some of the most common and costly areas of surgical and medical care. Hospitals across the state are collecting, sharing and analyzing data, then designing and implementing changes to improve patient care outcomes.

And it's working. Much of the success comes from the following three-part structure of each initiative:

Funding from the Blues enables hospitals to work in a collaborative environment. Funding provides resources for data collection and analysis and provides administrative oversight.
A separate coordinating center serves as a data warehouse, conducts data audits, performs data analyses and generates comparative performance reports.
Participating hospitals submit timely data, share best practices and implement quality practices within their hospitals.

This model is the first of its kind, nationally, and is highly regarded as an innovative approach to improving health care quality and value. Findings from these initiatives have been extensively published in peer-reviewed medical journals.

For more on the collaborative quality initiative model:

Contact
Rozanne Darland, CQI Administrator
Phone: 248-448-5573
rdarland@bcbsm.com

Initiatives

For more on the collaborative quality initiative model:

Awards

These initiatives have been recognized with many awards including:

Best of Blue, Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, for collaborative efforts in excellence and innovation.
eValue8 Health Plan Innovation award, National Business Coalition on Health.

Coordinating Center

Each initiative uses a coordinating center that works with Blue Cross and participating hospitals to identify opportunities and implement interventions to improve quality.

The coordinating center receives demographic and procedural data from participants to identify appropriate use and best practices. The center reviews data quality and monitors participating sites to ensure data validity. A physician champion serves as director of the coordinating center for each initiative.

Coordinating centers also:

Convene quarterly meetings to share data
Guide quality improvement efforts
Evaluate providers' participation

Participants

Providers participating in these initiatives are responsible for submitting timely and accurate data directly to the coordinating center or data warehouse. In addition, participants actively share data, cooperate with data audits, learn from best practices and implement improvement efforts within their facilities.