The Carolinas Center for Medical Excellence (CCME), under contract by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), serves as the Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) for North and South Carolina. These contracts are performance-based and focus on improving quality of care services for the people with Medicare living in the Carolinas. We work with health care providers to implement evidence-based practices, and collaborate and network with providers, stakeholders, and consumers on many quality improvement initiatives. This translates into better care for the patient and also valuable cost savings for the provider.

CMS Medicare Quality Improvement Initiatives
In our Medicare Quality Improvement contract with CMS, CCME provides expertise in Patient Safety, Prevention, Transitions of Care, and Beneficiary Centered Care. Our current Statement of Work runs through July 31, 2014.

Our quality improvement initiatives take health care quality improvement out of the silos of individual provider settings and focus on making gains to increase patient safety, further the use of preventive care by Medicare beneficiaries, improve coordination of care across settings to reduce hospital readmissions, and create a system that is centered on the patient. These initiatives also build on efforts to reduce health care acquired infections, improve medication safety, and promote increased use of data to improve population health. The goal of these initiatives is to improve the quality of care for Medicare patients and provide value to the Medicare program through reduced health care expenditures.

In our quality improvement initiatives, CCME:

• Reenergizes work with Medicare patients to engage and empower them with increased knowledge of, and involvement in, their health care decisions.
• Builds relationships with local health care providers and stakeholder groups.
• Focuses on care transitions and recognizes the significant correlation between reduced hospital readmissions and both the well being of patients and health care cost savings.
• Focuse on preventive care by promoting immunizations and screenings, as well as supporting the Cardiovascular Health Campaign in a way that brings private sector payers to the table to combat heart disease.
• Builds on efforts to prevent life threatening health care acquired infections such as surgical site infections, bloodstream infections, and urinary tract infections.
• Aims to completely eliminate the unnecessary use of physical restraints and reduce pressure ulcers in nursing homes.
• Forms collaboratives, provides technical assistance, and reinvents care by focusing on innovative, statewide efforts to align those working on health care quality improvement topics with the goal of spreading knowledge and best  practices.

For more information, please visit: www.ccmemedicare.org.