Diverse group of people

Great Plains Quality Care Coalition – Enrollment Ends October 30, 2020

After months of being poised to return to quality improvement work, the arrival of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services contract almost a year ago signaled a return to business as usual for the Great Plains Quality Innovation Network (QIN). However, by March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic brought drastic changes to healthcare and activities of daily life.

“The extra weight of the COVID-19 pandemic stalled many healthcare quality initiatives,” explained Stacie Fredenburg, quality improvement advisor for the Great Plains QIN. “Routine healthcare took a back seat to the challenges of hospital capacity, infection prevention, isolation, personal protective equipment, staffing and more.“ Pandemic efforts created a surge of competing priorities and demands on time and resources. To relieve this pressure, the Great Plains Quality Care Coalition is committed to reducing duplication of effort and provider burden by supporting existing healthcare initiatives.

The enrollment period for the Great Plains Quality Care Coalition will conclude on October 30, 2020. Membership within the coalition provides an opportunity for free support through learning events, coalition meetings, tools, resources and technical assistance. Community and healthcare stakeholders from North Dakota and South Dakota are encouraged to complete a Participation Agreement by October 30, 2020, to take full advantage of Coalition benefits.

Level of engagement accommodates for staff capacity and targets existing quality improvement priorities – aligning with the five national goals:

  1. Improve behavioral health outcomes, focused on decreased opioid misuse
  2. Increase patient safety
  3. Increase chronic disease self-management
  4. Increase quality of care transitions
  5. Improve nursing home quality

Best practice sharing will extend across the state and region with rural and health disparity populations being a priority.

“The goal of the Great Plains Quality Care Coalition is to provide traction and harness the power of the wheel without reinventing it,” Fredenburg added. “We also have a team of content experts to lend a hand with data analysis, education and tool development as gaps and high-impact opportunities are identified.”


The Great Plains QIN websites provides a list of current Coalition partners as well as a variety of quality improvement and healthcare resources. Better together. Join today.