Ahead of the Curve - A publication of TMF Health Quality Institute
Volume 16, Quarter 4, 2014
In This Issue
TMF Recognition at QNET

Recently, at the QualityNet: CMS Healthcare Quality Conference in Baltimore, TMF was singled out by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for the successes of our Salud por Vida/Health for Life projects. TMF was asked to discuss our methods and results in teaching Diabetes Self-management Education classes in underserved populations across Texas. CMS even Tweeted recognition of TMF for "EDC (Everyone With Diabetes Counts) program excellence." TMF is developing a program to teach best practices to other regional CMS Quality Innovation Networks in creating a diabetes education project.
No Grass Growing Under Feet of the TMF QIN-QIO Team

From the moment that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that TMF Health Quality Institute would lead one of 14 new Quality Innovation Network Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO) regions across the U.S., the TMF team has been laying the foundation and framing the structure of success for CMS' new health care initiatives.

TMF team members are not the kind to let grass grow under their feet. Quickly responding to the tasks of the five-year CMS contract, which began August 1, 2014, the team has already created a new website, http://www.tmfqin.org, as the hub for the initiatives. They also recruited remote staff from across the region as well as participating providers, conducted kick-off webinars, formed patient and provider collaboratives to guide synergetic health care, are conducting educational webinars for the various tasks and giving direct technical assistance to specific provider organizations.

The TMF QIN-QIO region includes Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico and Texas. The tasks assigned to the TMF QIN-QIO include:
  • Improving cardiac health and reducing cardiac health care disparities
  • Reducing disparities in diabetes care
  • Improving prevention efforts through meaningful use of health information technology
  • Reducing infections in hospitals
  • Reducing harm in nursing homes
  • Assisting physicians, hospitals and other settings of care with quality reporting
  • Helping communities improve the coordination of health care for patients to help reduce unnecessary hospital readmissions and adverse drug events
By the end of 2014, TMF will have conducted more than 40 educational webinars and open forum discussions related to the various health care improvement tasks. These opportunities for providers to learn and share best practices are part of the TMF QIN-QIO Learning and Action Networks found by visiting http://www.tmfqin.org/. The networks also facilitate learning through online resources and data as well as opportunities to collaborate with peer organizations and colleagues. The networks currently have a 95 percent participation rate of registered users, compared to an 81 percent participation rate at the end of the previous contract. Providers in Puerto Rico will soon also benefit from accessing a new comparable website in which all content will be in Puerto Rican Spanish.

TMF teams also have been giving direct technical assistance related to specific tasks, such as reducing hospital readmissions, preventing heart attacks and strokes and helping physicians with health information technology. Diabetes educators have been recruited, more are scheduled for training, and they will kick off the new year with classes to educate patients in diabetes self-management skills.

Visit www.tmfqin.org to learn about upcoming events and to see what new quality improvement resources are available. You can also follow TMF QIN-QIO via Twitter @TMFQINQIO.
TMF Foundation Launches My Lunch Rocks! Program to Encourage Healthy Eating Habits in Texas School Children

A new program to promote healthy eating habits among school-age children has launched in 32 cafeterias across the Leander and Round Rock Independent School Districts with the help of the TMF Foundation.

The foundation, which is the charitable giving arm of TMF Health Quality Institute, is providing these school districts with the materials and support to implement the program on their campuses. Each campus participating in the program is receiving a kit that includes posters to hang in and around the school cafeteria and stickers to distribute to children identified as making healthy eating choices. Volunteers from TMF as well as parents and teachers are visiting school cafeterias to encourage and recognize students who are seen eating healthy food, including fresh fruit, vegetables, items made from whole grains, protein such as chicken, beef or legumes, and drinking skim white milk or water.

The My Lunch Rocks! Program is in response to the national initiative to cut childhood obesity. With the holidays here and the opportunities to make unhealthy diet choices increasing, the project is timely. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the incidence of obesity in young people age 2 - 19 is about 17 percent, or 12.7 million children and adolescents with obesity.

Since 2006, all campuses across the nation that accept school lunch funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture are required to have a School Wellness Policy that sets goals for nutrition education, physical activity, campus food provision and activities to promote student wellness. The My Lunch Rocks! program helps bolster the nutrition education aspect of this requirement.

"We chose to support the My Lunch Rocks! program as it is a direct complement to our childhood obesity prevention efforts that are the focus of the foundation this school year," said Traci Whitney, executive director of the TMF Foundation. The foundation plans to expand the My Lunch Rocks! program to additional interested school districts during the next school year.

TMF recently allotted 16 hours of compensated time per year for employees to volunteer for TMF-sponsored volunteer opportunities, including the My Lunch Rocks! Program, Meals on Wheels and More, plus a foundation project to donate, wrap and deliver Christmas gifts to approximately 125 children attending the Little Dudes Learning Centers, a non-profit childcare and early learning organization.
TMF Health Quality Institute
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