Information & Quality Healthcare

The Medicare Quality Improvement Organization for Mississippi

Information & Quality Healthcare (IQH), a not-for-profit corporation chartered in 1971 in Mississippi, serves as the federally designated Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) for the state. IQH works under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to improve the quality of health care for Medicare beneficiaries. By serving as a resource for the state's health care providers and for Medicare beneficiaries, IQH fulfills its mission by providing leadership and consultative services to ensure that all Mississippians receive the right care at the right time, care that is safe, effective, efficient and timely.

IQH has been a resource and catalyst for health care improvement in Mississippi for over 35 years. The IQH vision is for a health care system that has the capacity to continually improve care and outcomes for the state's citizens. IQH professionals include physicians, nurses, health information administrators, data analysts and other quality experts working in teams to achieve the strategic goals of transforming health care in Mississippi.

CDC Health Advisory

The CDC has announced increased Influenza A (H3N2) virus infections in a number of states across the U.S., including two localized outbreaks. Sporadic cases of influenza and localized summer outbreaks from seasonal influenza viruses are detected each summer.

Clinicians are reminded to consider influenza as a possible diagnosis when evaluating patients with acute respiratory illnesses, including pneumonia, even during the summer months. For more information, read the CDC Health Advisory Click here to download the advisory.

August: National Immunization Awareness Month (NIAM)

Overview of NIAM

August is recognized as National Immunization Awareness Month (NIAM). The goal of NIAM is to increase awareness about immunizations across the life span, from infants to the elderly.

NIAM Logo August is the perfect time to remind family, friends, co-workers, and those in the community to catch up on their vaccinations. Parents are enrolling their children in school, students are entering college, and healthcare workers are preparing for the upcoming flu season.

Why are immunizations important?

Immunization is one of the most significant public health achievements of the 20th century. Vaccines have eradicated smallpox, eliminated wild poliovirus in the United States. and significantly reduced the number of cases of measles, diphtheria, rubella, pertussis and other diseases. But despite these efforts, people in the U.S. still die from these and other vaccine-preventable diseases.

Mississippi Health First

MEDICARE LAUNCHES MISSISSIPPI HEALTH FIRST COLLABORATIVE FOR DIABETES CARE IN COMMUNITY SETTINGS
A statewide effort to improve care for patients with diabetes across Mississippi, particularly for patients considered to be “medically underserved ,” was announced October 29, 2009, by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The initiative is called the Mississippi Health First Collaborative.

As part of the Collaborative, patients will receive diabetes self-management training in their home communities, in locations such as community centers or senior centers, instead of in hospitals or other traditional health care settings, such as doctors’ offices or outpatient clinics. The members of this Collaborative will help motivate and educate diabetes patients across the state to take preventive action against some of the complications of diabetes. Patients will get diabetes self-management training classes and health education literature on how to best control their blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol levels; establish relationships with primary-care providers; address better nutrition, regular exercise and how housing arrangements for patients can affect their health; and develop support networks of family, friends, and community-based social services.

Mississippi Coastal Health Information Exchange (MSCHIE)

The Mississippi Coastal Health Information Exchange (MSCHIE) has been established for health information technology (HIT) adoption and health information exchange (HIE) infrastructure development in Mississippi. The six coastal counties of Pearl River, Stone, George, Hancock, Harrison, and Jackson that were devastated by Hurricane Katrina are the focus of the health information exchange.

Five providers in the coastal area will initially share data with the MSCHIE connection. Participating clinicians will be able to access aggregated patient clinical information from disparate systems from any location 24 hours a day. Implementation of MSCHIE will see Information & Quality Healthcare (IQH) collaborating closely with the Mississippi Health Information Infrastructure Technology Task Force established by Gov. Haley Barbour in 2007.

Technology from Medicity, Inc., will provide MSCHIE with a secure interoperability platform, enabling clinicians to access community-based patient health records, clinical messaging and e-consultation, medical claims, medication history, and more.

By sharing secure data on a daily basis, MSCHIE participants will enhance the overall continuity of care, reduce costs, and ensure that vital, up-to-date information is available to clinicians at point-of-care.

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