New CQI aims to eliminate health disparities across Michigan

Only 20% of a person’s overall health status depends on the care they receive from doctors and hospitals. The remaining 80% is decided by what happens outside of the health system such as:

• Where they live
• Income and education level
• Whether they have adequate access to healthy foods
• If they have access to safe spots to exercise

That’s where Michigan Social Health Interventions to Eliminate Disparities, or MSHIELD, comes in. It’s a new Collaborative Quality Initiative, sponsored by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Blue Care Network.

CQIs are a component of the Value Partnerships program and support the collection and analysis of data, and development of corresponding quality improvement efforts to improve patient care. MSHIELD is partnering with other statewide CQIs and participating health care providers to integrate patient care practices that:

• Identify health inequities.
• Address social determinants of health.
• Work toward better, more equitable outcomes.

“It is exciting to see our partners at MSHIELD work across our vast CQI portfolio to identify, through our clinically rich data, areas of health inequities so that we can develop equity-focused quality improvement goals,” said Thomas Leyden, director, Value Partnerships. “Through these statewide programs, we are working to achieve equitable health outcomes for all Michiganians.”

Three principles guide MSHIELD’s work:

1. Data strategy and quality. MSHIELD supports CQIs by collecting and analyzing patient data from participating providers to create a population health registry. The CQIs then adopt quality improvement goals that focus on improving equity.
2. Community partnerships. MSHIELD works with participating CQIs to help providers connect their patients with community organizations, local resources and other CQIs to address social health needs. For example, MSHIELD partnered with the Genesee Community Health Access Program, the Michigan Bariatric Surgery Collaborative and McLaren Health Care to identify and actively address social health needs among bariatric surgery patients.
3. Culture of equity. Experts on MSHIELD’s team are interviewing participating CQIs about their current equity initiatives. Each participating CQI has a health equity champion who will take part in “action lab” forums to identify at least one equity-focused quality improvement goal for their collaborative to work on.

To learn more about MSHIELD, visit michiganshield.org.* For more information on the CQIs and other Value Partnerships programs, visit valuepartnerships.com.

*Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Blue Care Network don’t own or control this website.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Blue Care Network are nonprofit corporations and independent licensees of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.