Kansas City Quality Improvement Consortium

Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q) is a Robert Wood JohnsonFoundation initiative focusing on health and quality improvement,consumer engagement, and hospital quality improvement andphysician clinical engagement. KCQIC was selected as AF4Q Alliancefor this work. The grant expired during 2015.

KCQIC was one of 102 participating in the CMS-Community BasedTransitions of Care program (CCTP) funded under Section 3026 ofthe Affordable Care Act. KCQIC was working with 14 hospitals in theGreater Kansas City Bi-state (Missouri and Kansas) area to testmodels for improving care transitions from the hospital to othersettings and reducing readmissions for high-risk Medicarebeneficiaries. The goals of CCTP are to improve transitions ofbeneficiaries from the inpatient hospital setting to other caresettings, to improve quality of care, to reduce readmissions forhigh risk beneficiaries, and to document measurable savings to theMedicare program. The government discontinued funding for the program near the end of 2015.

KCQIC Partners Asthma Ready for the Kansas City Teaming Up forAsthma Control. Asthma Ready is a community based programdeveloped by division of Pulmonary Medicine & Allergy, Departmentof Child Health, University of Missouri (MU), School of Medicine,and Columbia, Mo. The goal of this program is to providestandardized, evidence-based educational programs for childrenwith asthma, families and health professionals. Bring together theschool nurse, child, parents and providers of children with asthmato improve care, reduce emergency room visits and increase the useof appropriate treatment as documented in National Health and LungInstitute's Expert Panel Report 3: Guidelines for the Diagnosisand Management of Asthma.