Schwimmer Script Blog
Looking Back, and Ahead, After Twenty Years Of Health Care Transparency
It’s been twenty years since the Institute of Medicine released To Err Is Human and shined a light on the need to improve quality and safety in health care. Both the National Quality Forum (NQF) and the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute started twenty years ago. Both organizations take a unique multi-stakeholder approach to…Read More…
Have You Had The ‘Conversation of Your Life?’
At the Quality Institute, we’re changing the culture around end-of-life care. In libraries and senior centers, town halls and houses of worship, parks and colleges, we’re bringing people together for education — and for thoughtful conversations that provide clarity to loved ones. We started Conversation of Your Life (COYL) in 2014 with three mayors and today…Read More…
Pioneering Midwife Joins Quality Institute Board
We are thrilled that Linda Sloan Locke, CNM, MPH, LSW, has joined the Quality Institute’s Board of Directors, and we are so pleased to introduce her to our members. Linda’s experience and passion for maternal child health make her a valuable addition to our leadership. As you can read in the Take Five below, Linda…Read More…
Extend Medicaid Coverage for New Moms
Recently I was invited to share testimony in Trenton on a package of bills to improve outcomes for new mothers and their babies. I provided testimony to both the Assembly and the Senate Health, Human Services, and Senior Citizens Committees. As the state explores ways to reduce maternal deaths, one overarching change seems absolutely necessary:…Read More…
Share Your Real-World Case Studies of Improving Quality
I urge anyone committed to improving health care quality to read this case study from Texas Children’s Hospital’s Pavilion for Women, which outlines how the organization reduced the use of episiotomies by more than 60 percent in five years. Today, these surgical incisions — which increase complications and maternal deaths — are used in just 3.4…Read More…
Driving Payment Reform — A Roadmap for 2019
At the Quality Institute, we begin 2019 with a baseline for where we are on payment reform in New Jersey — and a greater understanding of the challenges ahead. As the lead New Jersey partner of Catalyst for Payment Reform’s (CPR) Scorecard 2.0, we worked with CPR as they assessed payment reform activity in New…Read More…
It’s Time to Revamp Prior Authorizations
Earlier this year, we invited primary care physicians, including pediatricians, to join us for dinner and discussion. We wanted to know why New Jersey physicians have low participation rates in both Medicaid and Medicare. We expected to hear a great deal about low reimbursement rates. Instead, we heard about the daily frustrations of physicians. They…Read More…
At Last, A Coordinated Effort to Increase Coverage
Driving to visit relatives in the northern part of New Jersey recently, I passed a billboard on Route 280 that said: Get Covered NJ. I never saw a sign like that before. I smiled. The towering roadside message tells me that our new administration in Trenton is serious about increasing enrollment through the Affordable Care…Read More…
Safety Grade Entrenched in New Jersey Two Decades After Watershed IOM Report
You’ll likely see widespread press coverage today on how New Jersey hospitals performed in the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades. We did very well — with the highest percentage of A hospitals. But equally important, in my perspective, is that New Jersey had the highest rate of participation in the Leapfrog Hospital Survey among regions with more than…Read More…
Quality Reporting Moves Beyond Hospital Walls
Surgeries today are increasingly performed in hospital outpatient centers and ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs), yet there is practically no independent, consumer-friendly data about the safety and quality of care in these settings. The lack of accessible data comes as many purchasers guide patients to lower-priced settings, and often design benefits to steer appropriate patients to…Read More…