UW Medicine Neighborhood Clinics have received a second leadership award from the health insurer Premera Blue Cross (Premera) for continued participation and support in the Premera Quality Score Card program. UW Medicine Neighborhood Clinics are one of fifteen participating medical groups in Washington State.

The Premera quality program was designed to help develop evidence-based outcome measures in key areas of health care. Premera's approach is based on national guidelines, best practices and a commitment to continuous improvement in health-care quality.

This year, the quality program will be the subject of a major study funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and led by Doug Conrad, Ph.D., director of the UW Center for Management Research. The study aims to assess the groundbreaking work in the clinical quality improvement partnership between Premera and its medical group partners, including UW Medicine Neighborhood Clinics. The UW Medicine Neighborhood Clinics are a part of UW Medicine, which also includes Harborview Medical Center, UW Medical Center and the UW School of Medicine.

"Approximately three years ago, UW Medicine Neighborhood Clinics were asked to be a participating medical group and act on behalf of UW Medicine in this ground-breaking quality score card program," said Dr. Peter McGough, chief medical officer for the clinics and UW clinical associate professor. "After working with the program, we said we would take our lessons learned back to UW Medicine and provide knowledge and support to help others improve clinical quality measures and related outcomes.

"Internally, this has stimulated UW Medicine Neighborhood Clinics to focus on areas of care in which we were looking to excel, especially diabetes care and women's health care," McGough said.

Physicians and practices recognized as "Premera Blue Cross Healthcare Quality Award Program Honorees" represent clinics of all sizes across Washington that are committed to delivering exceptional levels of quality care. This year, Premera Blue Cross recognized 27 individual physicians and practices.

### 

For more information about the program, refer to: https://demo.premera.com/stellent/groups/public/documents/xcpproject/mwa_qsc07_overview.asp