History

NCHQA began in 2006 when a broad array of players came together at the invitation of the governor of North Carolina. In 2008, the Governor’s Quality Initiative (GQI) became NCHQA, an independent non profit organization. The initial Board of Directors consisted of members appointed by the Governor and other public officials, various medical societies, insurers, the state hospital association, the North Carolina Foundation for Advanced Health Programs and Community Care of North Carolina (CCNC). It also included representatives of academic medical centers, business, consumers and other key players dedicated to improving care.

NCHQA’s first project was the promotion of evidence-based standards in primary care practices. To support this “best practice” approach, NCHQA organized training and support to physician practices and measurement of health care quality using nationally recognized standards for care for specific health conditions. We adopted common quality measures for the treatment of chronic diseases.

On-the-ground support and leadership were provided by North Carolina’s Improving Performance in Practice (IPIP) program. NCHQA and IPIP recruited primary care practices willing to improve their delivery of chronic disease care; provided training, support and tools to assist those practices in improving the quality of care; and provided feedback to practices regarding their performance in meeting quality standards. By mid-2010, more than 180 practices throughout North Carolina were receiving hands-on support with practice redesign and quality improvement.

In 2010, the North Carolina Area Health Education Centers program (AHEC) became the state’s federally-designated Regional Extension Center (REC), receiving federal funds to support implementation of electronic medical records in North Carolina physician practices. At that time, AHEC also became the administrator of the IPIP program. By directly building on IPIP’s quality improvement work in North Carolina, AHEC is able to fully integrate quality improvement into its support services and help practices implement technology to improve the quality of health care. AHEC has remained a key partner of NCHQA through multiple projects, including the ongoing Rural Opioid Efforts in Area L AHEC’s northeastern North Carolina counties. For more information on AHEC’s practice based primary care services, please visit https://www.ncahec.net/practice-support/what-we-do/.

As the environment and needs of the healthcare industry shift throughout the state of North Carolina, the diversity and influence of the NCHQA Board of Directors has enabled the organization to stay on the edge of innovation and quality improvement. Throughout multiple projects, NCHQA has focused on the health and wellbeing of North Carolinians. Federal and state legislation, newly arising healthcare threats, and changing funding opportunities create new opportunities for NCHQA to work towards improving healthcare quality in our state.