CMS Awards 16 Partnership-Driven Special Innovation Projects to Close the Gap between Best Practice & Common Practice
Yesterday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced it has taken another step toward ensuring that beneficiaries receive better care, better health and greater value. CMS has awarded 16, two-year Special Innovation Projects (SIPs), to ten regional Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organizations (QIN-QIOs). The SIPs address healthcare quality issues, such as early detection and management of sepsis, advance care planning, colorectal cancer screening and disease management in rural settings among other critically important healthcare quality issues.
The Great Plains Quality Innovation Network (QIN) is pleased to announce it will be working to establish better tracking and reporting of colorectal cancer screening rates in the region.
Although the incidence of colon cancer has declined significantly over the past ten years largely due to improvement in screening and early detection, rates of colorectal cancer remain highest in the Midwest. The four Midwestern states served by the Great Plains QIN – Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota – continue to have colorectal cancer incidence rates that are higher than the national average and colorectal cancer screening rates that are far below the national average.
According to the American Cancer Society and the National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable, a practitioner’s recommendation is the single most influential factor in persuading individuals to be screened for cancer, and only a systemic approach that is designed to provide this recommendation to every eligible patient will make it possible to achieve the targeted screening rates.
The Great Plains QIN will provide education and training to clinics through a regional Learning and Action Network (LAN). Topics to be covered will include current knowledge and guidelines about appropriate colorectal cancer screening, evidence-based practices for improving screening rates and strategies for overcoming barriers. In addition, the LAN will provide a forum for participating clinics to learn from one another and share successful strategies and lessons learned.
“While it is not the first year of the QIN-QIO contracts, the 2015 SIP awards represent a paradigm shift in how CMS views and utilizes the investment made in special quality innovation work. We are excited to study the results produced by these SIPs in the coming two years and will look to the outcomes of these projects for future use in the QIO Program, creating an exciting opportunity for providers, professional organizations, innovation labs, and others to innovate and impact healthcare quality at local, regional or national levels. Patrick Conway, MD, MSc; Acting Principal Deputy Administrator – Deputy Administrator for Innovation and Quality and CMS Chief Medical Officer.
For more information on efforts of the Great Plains QIN to improve cancer rates through screenings, education and public awareness, visit our Web site.
The complete list of 2015 SIPs can be found on the Quality Improvement Organization Program website