West Virginia Medical Institute (WVMI) Awarded Three End Stage Renal Disease Network Contracts
Charleston, WV (PRWEB) December 15, 2015 -- The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has awarded the West Virginia Medical Institute (WVMI) three regional End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Network program contracts.
WVMI, through its Quality Insights Renal Network and Mid-Atlantic Renal Coalition divisions, will seek to improve care quality and access for patients with kidney disease in three of CMS’ 18 ESRD regions: Network 3 (New Jersey, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands), Network 4 (Delaware, Pennsylvania) and Network 5 (Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, District of Columbia).
Staff will partner with patients, dialysis/transplant providers and allied stakeholders to initiate focused quality improvement projects, measure their impact through data collection, analyses and monitoring for improvement, and broadly share successes and best practices. Each ESRD Network is tasked with incorporating innovation, rapid cycle improvement, teamwork, customer-focus and sustainability.
Specific areas of emphasis include improving vaccination rates, reducing the use of long term catheters for vascular access and reducing hospital acquired infections. Additionally, the Networks will pilot projects to increase transplant referrals, increase home dialysis rates, improve quality of life and reduce hospitalizations.
WVMI’s Network activities will span a five-year period from 2016 to 2020.
“As a mission-based company dedicated to improving health care quality, we are excited to continue helping CMS meet its three-part aim of better care, smarter spending and healthier people,” Sven Berg, MD, WVMI’s Chief Medical Officer said. “To that end, we look forward to working with individuals living with kidney disease, their families, communities and health care providers to improve their quality of life and the care provided to them.”
About WVMI
Based in Charleston, WV, WVMI is dedicated to fulfilling the mission of “improving the health of the people we serve.” WVMI specializes in data collection and analysis, continuous quality improvement, health information technology, and practice transformation. WVMI supports quality initiatives from federal and state agencies, as well as private payers. Learn more about how WVMI is measuring quality and inspiring change at http://www.wvmi.org.
Marc McCombs, West Virginia Medical Institute, http://www.qualityinsights-qin.org, +1 304-346-9864 Ext: 2267, [email protected]
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