Mi-COVID19 registry earns national recognition

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan’s Collaborative Quality Initiative program was recently awarded the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association’s Fast Network Best Practice Prize. We won the prize for the rapid development and implementation efforts of the Mi-COVID19 registry through the Hospital Medicine Safety, or HMS, Collaborative Quality Initiative.

The 2020 Fast Network Best Practice Prize recognized plans demonstrating innovations for improving health equity and addressing the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan was a finalist among 12 other Blue plans demonstrating the effectiveness of CQI programs in rapidly bringing together providers across the state to implement quality improvement initiatives, particularly in times of crisis.

The goal of HMS has been to improve the quality of care for hospitalized medical patients who are at risk for adverse events. In April 2020, within weeks of the pandemic hitting Michigan, HMS launched a clinical registry focused on Michigan patients hospitalized with COVID-19.

The purpose of this initiative was to quickly obtain data to understand this patient population and help support clinical decision-making across Michigan. The Mi-COVID19 initiative consisted of 40-plus hospitals and health systems across the state of Michigan. They worked together to share and learn best practices to improve care for patients with COVID-19.

Participating hospitals in the Mi-COVID19 clinical data registry have performed rigorous chart abstractions of patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Here are the goals of collecting data from the patients’ medical records:

• Identifying factors associated with critical illness and severe course, and outcomes
• Identifying patient characteristics, care practices and treatment regimens associated with improved outcomes
• Understanding the long-term complications for hospitalized patients, including readmission, mortality and returning to normal activities.
• Evaluating variability of care processes across Mi-COVID19 hospitals and identifying processes associated with improved outcomes

A recent study conducted through the COVID-19 initiative uncovered widespread unnecessary prescribing of antibiotics for early patients. When COVID-19 cases were peaking in the spring, more than half of hospitalized patients suspected of having the virus received antibiotics, just in case they had a bacterial infection. Yet testing showed that more than 96% of them only had the coronavirus — which isn’t affected by antibiotics.

Based on the study findings, inpatient COVID-19 treatment guidelines have been updated and can help providers across the country supply better care for patients.

The rapid speed in which the COVID-19 CQI could be pulled together is further proof that the platform and support provided by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan can make a big difference when emerging health crises develop.

As the pandemic continues, HMS is launching a sepsis initiative across 15 pilot hospitals starting in first-quarter 2021. The initiative will incorporate key elements from the COVID-19 data collection into the quality improvement efforts for sepsis care.

About CQIs
Collaborative Quality Initiatives, or CQIs, are provider-led, statewide initiatives for quality improvement. They involve hospitals and physicians across the state collecting, sharing and analyzing data on patient risk factors, processes of care and outcomes of care, then designing and implementing changes to improve patient care.

The award-winning CQI model is the first of its kind nationally and is internationally recognized as an innovative approach to improving health care quality and value. CQI findings are routinely published in peer-reviewed literature, and best practices discovered in Michigan are widely implemented across the globe. 

The CQI platform has been profiled in presentations in more than 30 countries on five continents.

Click here for more information about the award-winning CQI model.