The CMS has awarded a contract to  HealthInsight to improve care quality at the Indian Health Service’s hospitals, first by fixing alarming deficiencies there that have attracted federal scrutiny. HealthInsight,  a nonprofit, community-based organization, is charged with “supporting, building and redesigning if needed” the infrastructure of IHS hospitals.

“IHS hospitals—and our staff members across the country—are focused on continuous improvement. (HealthInsight) will provide training for our staff and access to experts to strengthen IHS capacity to deliver quality health care for American Indian and Alaska Native patients,” said Mary L. Smith, IHS’s principal deputy director.

HealthInsight operates in Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon and Utah, which have large populations of Native Americans. It serves as the CMS’s quality-innovation network-quality improvement organization for those states under a five-year contract that began July 2014 .

“HealthInsight works with providers and the community on multiple, data-driven quality initiatives to improve patient safety, reduce harm, engage patients and families, and improve clinical care locally and across our region,” the organization’s Web site explains. That involves “transforming physician practices, employing lean methodology, assisting with value-based purchasing programs and developing innovative approaches to quality improvement.”

Although the contract particularly targets  Medicare beneficiaries,  the CMS said that the work involved would “result in systemic change that improves all of the care provided at these facilities.”

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