IFMC to Manage Maryland’s Quality Measures Data Center
January 06, 2009
West Des Moines, Iowa - The Maryland Health Care Commission (MHCC) has announced an award to IFMC to establish and manage Maryland's Quality Measures Data Center, a state-wide repository for hospital performance measures.
The five-year contract begins in January 2009. IFMC will work with the MHCC to collect, assemble, edit and validate performance measure data sets from Maryland acute care hospitals as well as organize uniform, statewide databases for each measure data set. The contract also calls for IFMC to prepare data analyses and on-line reports, including an Annual Report on Hospital Quality for the state.
Two recognized leaders in the improvement of hospital clinical quality measures, the Maryland Health Care Commission (MHCC) and IFMC, are part of a growing list of health care organizations nationwide that publicly report comparative data on hospital clinical performance, patient satisfaction and other measures.
Maryland has been a cutting edge state in collecting and publicly reporting information on quality of care. Goals for the state include, promoting knowledgeable patient choices regarding health care providers, and providing feedback to health care providers and policymakers. The Maryland General Assembly has charged the Maryland Health Care Commission with this major initiative, designed to promote quality health care for all Maryland residents through collecting and publicly reporting hospital data that permits comparisons based on a range of performance measures. These measures include: process of care, outcomes of care, patient and family perceptions of care and structural and organizational characteristics associated with high performing organizations.
IFMC is an experienced, national leader with significant expertise in the collection, processing, analysis and reporting of large volumes of hospital performance data. IFMC has been working with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for over five years to report health care quality information through the CMS Hospital Compare Web site. IFMC’s knowledge and experience working on public reporting initiatives and hospital P4P programs is unmatched in the industry.
For additional information on this contract, please contact Mark Koepke, Project Director at 443-561-3324 or mkoepke@ifmc.org.
For more than 35 years, IFMC and ENCOMPASS Health Management Systems have been dedicated to the delivery of innovative health management solutions. A full range of flexible and customized information, quality and care management services enables IFMC/ENCOMPASS to address all aspects of health care needs.