HOSPITAL Quality Initiatives

Iowa Healthcare Collaborative (IHC) has a team of professionals dedicated to helping hospitals achieve sustainable healthcare transformation. While some of its services are supported through state and federal contracts, all are delivered using strategic execution principles. IHC works collaboratively with hospitals and stakeholders, to align and equip hospitals through on-the-ground and virtual technical assistance, training and resource deployment.

IHC has led several federal contracts aimed at advancing hospital quality and patient safety. From 2012 to March 2020, IHC led the Partnership for Patients (PfP) Hospital Engagement Network (HEN) and Hospital Improvement Innovation Network (HIIN) campaigns. Participating hospitals collectively prevented more than 36,916 harms with an estimated cost savings of $285,263,007 over this performance period.

In February 2020, IHC was awarded the support contract for the Medicare Beneficiary Quality Improvement Project (MBQIP) by the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH). MBQIP is the quality improvement (QI) activity required to meet the eligibility requirements in the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Grant Program. Through its scope of work IHC will deliver technical assistance (TA) to Iowa Critical Access Hospitals to support their quality improvement efforts.

In September 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced IHC as one of nine Hospital Quality Improvement Contractors (HQICs). The recently launched program supports acute care hospitals with a focus on serving rural and underserved populations.