Quality Improvement Activities (QIAs)
Engaging Patients & Family
Ensuring accurate data
building relationships with esrd facilities
About our Network Quality Improvement Activities (QIA)
Our Network’s Quality Improvement Activities (QIAs) align with the goals and objectives established by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) under the Network of Quality Improvement and Innovation Contractor (NQIIC) initiative. This initiative is designed to advance CMS’s priorities for improving healthcare quality across the nation.
As a key component of the NQIIC program, ESRD Network contractors play a vital role in connecting with a wide range of healthcare providers, patients, and community stakeholders. This unique position enables us to act as change agents, driving meaningful improvements in care delivery and outcomes.
Our Quality Improvement efforts focus on meeting CMS’s current and evolving goals, including:
- Improving Care for High-Cost and Complex Chronic Conditions – Enhancing care quality for individuals with chronic conditions like end-stage renal disease.
- Reducing Hospital Admissions, Readmissions, and Emergency Visits – Addressing key factors to improve patient health and reduce unnecessary healthcare utilization.
- Providing Targeted Quality Improvement Responses – Delivering focused interventions to address specific areas of need in our communities.
Through these initiatives, we strive to ensure that patients receive high-quality, equitable care while supporting healthcare providers and facilities in achieving improved outcomes.
Network QIAs:
- Improve Transplant Coordination
- Increase Rates of Patients Dialyzing at Home
- Improve Behavioral Health Outcomes
- Educate and Manage Public Health Emergencies (PHEs), Related Vaccinations and Healthy Living
- Reduce Hospital Admissions, Readmissions, and Outpatient Emergency Visits
- Improve Patient Safety and Reduce Harm in Nursing Home Dialysis
- Improve Patient and Family Engagement at the Facility Level
- Reduce the Use of Long-Term Catheters (LTCs)
- Reduce the Rates of Bloodstream Infections (BSIs)
- Improving Health Outcomes and Access to Care
These projects emphasize:
- Building Network relationships with ESRD patients
- Ensuring representation of ESRD patient in shared decision making related to ESRD care to promote person-centeredness and family engagement
- Protecting ESRD patients' access to and quality of dialysis care, especially among vulnerable populations
- Building Network relationships with ESRD facilities
- Identifying opportunities for quality improvement at the individual facility level and providing technical assistance
- Promoting all modalities of care, including home modalities and transplantation to promote patient independence and improve clinical outcomes
- Facilitating process to promote coordination between care settings
- Ensuring accurate, complete, consistent, and timely data collection, analysis, and reporting by facilities in accordance with national standards and the ESRD QIP