Quality Improvement Consulting

Improving patient care

"My TMF quality improvement consultant has been incredibly supportive. I attribute some of our success to the oversight that TMF has provided. They gave us exceptional tools that were very specific and concise, which helped us a great deal in determining what direction we needed to go."

-Linda Farris
Co-owner and Administrator
Texas Cardiac Care

Hospitals, physician offices, nursing homes, home health care agencies, hospital districts and state health departments have all benefited from one-on-one quality improvement consulting from TMF Health Quality Institute. Our services are specifically designed to analyze and improve the quality of care patients receive.

Nearly 40 years of experience applying practice guidelines, national standards and process improvement techniques enables TMF to objectively evaluate health care delivery. Our quality improvement consulting staff includes physicians, nurses, clinicians, biostatisticians and other experts with a unique and comprehensive understanding of the health care system. Together, we can map out a plan to facilitate success.

Our professional assistance includes:

• Assessment of the health care provider’s current situation
• Identification of organizational goals and objectives
• Development of a detailed plan with outcomes and timelines to guide the provider through changes
• One-on-one consultation with a TMF quality improvement consultant
• Ongoing communication and support to help facilitate progress
• Onsite and offsite training on quality improvement best practices

Services

• Pay-for-performance preparation – TMF helps health care providers prepare for Medicare’s pay-for-performance initiatives.
• Workflow assessment and process redesign – We assist physician practices with workflow assessment and process redesign to achieve greater efficiency.
• Measure improvement – TMF partners with hospitals, nursing homes and home health agencies to improve their performance on publicly reported measures.
• Organizational culture transformation – We assist nursing homes and home health agencies in transforming their organizational culture.
• Patient safety culture assessment – We assess hospitals’ cultures for patient safety.
• Disparities reduction – TMF helps providers decrease health care disparities for underserved populations.

Clients

"Working with TMF gave me the information and guidelines I needed to eliminate restraint usage in our facility. Without their assistance and the educational information they provided, our elderly residents would have never known the joy of being free from restraints."

-Donna Davis, RN
Former Director of Nursing
Sheridan on Anderson Nursing Home

TMF’s quality improvement consulting clients include hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies, physician offices and federal, state and local government entities. As the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization for Texas, TMF works under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to improve patient care through multiple cooperative efforts with the health care community. In this role, TMF provides select quality improvement consulting services at no charge to providers. For more information on this program visit the Company Overview section of this site.

Accomplishments

Patient Safety (Medicare)
TMF works with hospitals and nursing homes in Texas to implement programs to improve patient safety. Our current areas of focus include infections, pressure ulcers, physical restraints, surgical care, heart failure and drug safety.

Hospitals participating in previous TMF quality improvement projects reduced their rates for heart failure by 19 percent, acute myocardial infarction by 12 percent and pneumonia by 51 percent. Nursing homes participating in previous TMF quality improvement projects reduced their rates for pressure ulcers by 19 percent, physical restraints by 69 percent, chronic pain by 10 percent and depression by 11 percent.

Prevention/Chronic Kidney Disease (Medicare)
TMF is conducting a project to decrease the incidence of chronic kidney disease. A key component of this CKD quality improvement effort is coalition building and collaboration with providers as well as partners that can support our efforts at the local, state and national levels.

For the CKD project TMF recruited 168 physician practices (350 physicians). TMF also brought together a key group of kidney specialists, primary care physicians, health care providers, community leaders and stakeholders to form the Dallas Advisory Group to Improve Kidney Testing among African-Americans with Diabetes.

Care Transitions (Medicare)
TMF is one of 14 QIOs in the country selected to improve coordination of care across clinical settings and reduce avoidable rehospitalizations. We are working with health care providers in Texas’ Lower Rio Grande Valley to measurably improve quality of care for Medicare beneficiaries who transition between care settings.

TMF assisted all hospitals participating in this project with implementing components of the Re-Engineer Discharge intervention, a proven strategy for reducing rehospitalizations. In addition, TMF provided training on patient empowerment and self-management skills to more than 100 beneficiaries per month in 2009.

Vaccines for Children
State agencies in Texas, Delaware, Arizona, Kansas and Kentucky contract with TMF to educate and evaluate providers participating in the Vaccines for Children program. We conduct individual provider office assessments and assist with quality improvement activities to increase immunization rates for children.

TMF has conducted more than 22,000 Vaccines for Children site visits since 2001. During the years TMF has conducted site visits, state health departments have seen on average a six percent increase in immunization coverage for children 19 to 35 months of age.