Quality Improvement

Improve patient experience, quality of care and lower costs 

NEQCA's Quality Team coordinates efforts to help the network achieve the Quadruple Aim goals of providing better health, better care, lower cost and improved provider satisfaction. NEQCA deploys resources and programs necessary for network physicians to achieve these goals.

The NEQCA Quality Team provides patient experience assessments and support for practices, and Local Care Organizations (LCOs). Initial patient experience work focuses on changing the way “we” think about patient experience, with the primary focus being “patient experience is NOT patient satisfaction.” Positive patient experiences provide opportunities for our physicians to improve in quality and efficiency measures (e.g. access to care in the office helps to increase efficiency measures, such as ED visits). By providing education on key aspects of patient experience domains, and sharing data with physicians, we have been able to build relationships with practice leadership that have led to the implementation of innovative activities such as: 

• “Shadowing” programs that have led to changes in workflow related to the patient’s experience during various points of care such as an office visit and related to wait times
• Scripting for difficult calls and service recovery
• Tracking outcomes related to workflow changes to measure success of communicating routine laboratory results.
• Development of wallet cards to publicize a practice, hours of operation and levels of care.

The NEQCA Quality Team also provides support to the LCOs in all areas of patient care measures – traditional quality measures, patient experience, safety, and efficiency related to contracted measures (commercial payers as well as government). Assistance is provided on an individual basis and is tailored to the needs of the specific LCO or practice.