Quality improvement organizations

Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs) are private contractor extensions of the federal government that work under the auspices of the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS -- formerly HCFA, the Health Care Financing Administration). Formerly known as "PROs" (Peer Review Organizations), these (mostly state-level) QIO entities are charged with monitoring the appropriateness and effectiveness/quality of care provided to Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. In recent years QIOs have undertaken to facilitate continual improvement of health care services within their constituent communities in addition to their original and ongoing statutory audit/inspection role of medical "peer review" (i.e., akin to the traditional function of "quality assurance").

An example of current QIO quality improvement work is that of the federal DOQ-IT initiative (Doctor's Office Quality Information Technology), which "promotes the adoption of electronic health record (EHR) systems and information technology (IT) in small-to-medium sized physician offices with a vision of enhancing access to patient information, decision support, and reference data, as well as improving patient-clinician communications." NOTE: The acronym EHR is typically used interchangeably with "EMR" (Electronic medical record). For more information on this topic, see medical informatics.

The QIOs are represented nationally by AHQA, the American Health Quality Association.