Clinical Excellence

February 1, 2012

Contact: Mark Camps, Kaiser Permanente, office: 510-625-5624, mobile: 510-529-1854

Kaiser Permanente’s Care Management Institute Case Study Used to Analyze National Quality

Kaiser Permanente’s Care Management Institute was included as one of five national case studies used for the evaluation of the National Priorities Partnership. The case studies were undertaken in order to provide real-time analysis into how these organizations applied and aligned with NPP’s priorities to guide their work and improve health care.

The NPP is a group of health care leaders from 48 member organizations that provide guidance to government and the private sector on quality and performance improvement. This group provides consultative support to the Department of Health and Human Services on setting national priorities and goals for the HHS National Quality Strategy. It is tied to the Partnership for Patients, an initiative Kaiser Permanente supported last year.

“The CMI case study provides insight into regional, on-the-ground work in transitions and palliative care at Kaiser Permanente,” said Alide Chase, senior vice president of Quality and Service at Kaiser Permanente and co-executive director, CMI. “We are honored to share this important work with a broader audience, which may benefit other organizations in their efforts to improve the quality of care in these areas.”

The five case studies were conducted as an independent evaluation of the NPP’s influence on health care organizations to implement the National Quality Strategy. The studies illustrated contextual examples of various priority areas and how these organizations reflected many of the NPP’s goals in their own strategic plans for quality improvement.

For instance, the CMI case at Kaiser Permanente around care coordination and transitions — when patients moved from hospital to home — aligned well and proved parallel with NPP’s national priorities. Although Kaiser Permanente’s strategic aims were a result of a long track record in these areas, the NPP is credited with giving a lift to the work and served as a complementary tool for analysis.

The four other case studies that were included in the NPP study:

• HealthPartners, an integrated health care system in Bloomington, Minn.
• The North Carolina Quality Center for Hospital Quality and Patient Safety
• The Pharmacy Quality Alliance, a national organization that promotes appropriate medication use.
• The Spine Center at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H.

For more information on the National Priorities Partnership, please see the National Quality Forum’s press release. For more information on Kaiser Permanente’s Care Management Institute, visit the CMI website.