Interested in a QI peer group?
Interested in a QI peer group?
Here’s how to create one
Quality managers in Florida have found a way to share QI tips and ideas while working toward common goals.
The Florida Hospital Association and 11 hospital-based home care agencies joined forces in 1994 to form a QI task force peer group.
"The mission statement for the task force was to provide a forum for networking, identifying common needs, and establishing programs to meet the challenges of the changing health care environment," says Danica Luehm, director of community care services for the Florida Hospital Association in Orlando.
Luehm says the association asked for volunteers among home care agencies to join the task force, and 11 agencies responded.
The group, which met from April 1994 to November 1995, developed these six goals:
• to increase the value of the home care division to the hospital;
• to help agencies remain competitive in a managed care environment;
• to assume a proactive approach to challenges of managed care;
• to provide data for strategic managed care negotiations;
• to establish data for regional and individual agency measurement evaluations;
• to provide regional standards for the delivery of efficient cost effective care.
That group always was intended to be temporary, Luehm says.
Once that group stopped meeting, another task force formed in its place. The new one is called Hospital Home Care Association of Florida Quality Assurance-Risk Management Task Force. And this group is looking at infection control issues.
The Florida Hospital Association has published a book about the original task force that describes how it was formed. The book also describes the task force’s study of osteoarthritis, coronary artery disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, congestive heart failure, fractured hip, insulin dependent diabetes mellitus, hypertension, pneumonia, cerebral vascular accident, and decubitus ulcer.
The book, called Regional Utilization Trends in Hospital Home Care, costs $85. Members of the association can buy it at a discounted price of $40. For an order form or for more information, call the association at (407) 841-6230 or write to Danica Luehm, Director of Community Care Services, Florida Hospital Association, P.O. Box 531107, Orlando, FL 32853. Telephone: (407) 841-6230.
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