Purpose:

“The End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Quality Initiative Program (ESRD QIP)  promotes ongoing CMS strategies to improve the quality of care provided to ESRD patients. This initiative supports quality improvement efforts among providers and makes available quality information that will enable patients to participate in making health care decisions. Quality measures for dialysis facilities are available to consumers on Dialysis Facility Compare website on the Medicare.gov.” (Source: CMS ESRD QIP Website)

End-stage Renal Disease Quality Incentive Program (ESRD QIP)

“CMS developed the ESRD QIP to be the nation’s first pay-for-performance (also known as “value-based purchasing”) quality incentive program as mandated by the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 (MIPPA) section 153(c). This first-of-its-kind program provides the ESRD community with the opportunity to enhance the overall quality of care that ESRD patients receive as they battle this devastating disease.” (Source: CMS ESRD QIP Website)

Transparency and Quality Monitoring and Improvement:

Since the final rule for participation in the CMS ESRD QIP was published in 2010, dialysis facilities now have to achieve certain benchmarks in quality to retain their full payment for services.

Initially, four (4) hemodialysis quality measures are being tracked and are publicly reported  on the Dialysis Facility Compare Website. These measures include:

1. Dialysis adequacy (Percent of Medicare patients who had enough wastes removed from their blood
during dialysis.

2. Anemia. ( Percent of patients whose anemia (low red cell count) was not controlled.

3. Patients Survival. (Actual rates of survival versus expected rates of survival)

4. Demographics and Registry Data:( Looks at things such as how long facility has participated, how late they are open, what services offered, mix of patients, etc.)

Click here to see how your facility compares.

Dialysis Facility Compare Web Site:  For 2012, CMS will use the Dialysis Facility Compare web site, www.medicare.gov/Dialysis, to publish ESRD QIP results including individual facility scores.   CMS will also publish information online at: www.cms.gov/esrdqualityimproveinits.

Save The Arm (TM) safety platforms such as the 5 A’s and EASE, the use of Campaigns and Save The Arm educational awareness materials and the use of barrier and awareness devices such as Save The Arm Sleeves, Tape and tattoos are an important part of a strategy to assure that high quality care is possible for End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) and pre-ESRD Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) patients.

Find out if your site is Save The Arm(TM) certified and/or reigistered by clicking here. To speak with a Save The Arm(TM) account representative click here. To order Save The Arm(TM) materials and supplies click here. To learn more about Save The Arm(TM) click here.