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Quality Improvement and Health Equity Committee (QIHEC) Quarterly Report
The QIHEC is a group of people from Kaiser Permanente and the community. We work together to make sure everyone gets the right healthcare. No matter their race, ethnicity, gender, or who they love. We focus on keeping people healthy and preventing disease. We do this by making sure everyone gets the care they need. The QIHEC helps us make healthcare better for Medi-Cal members.
Here's a summary of what was talked about, decided, and done in recent meetings.
Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Plans and Systems (CAHPS®) Result Summary – coming in 2025
The Department of Healthcare Services (DHCS) wants to know how happy people are with their Medi-Cal health plans. So, they ask adults and parents of kids in the plans to fill out a survey. This survey is called CAHPS. It's like a report card that tells DHCS if the plans are doing a good job taking care of people. The results help DHCS make the plans even better. Kaiser Permanente reports CAHPS results in alignment with DHCS requirements. 2025 CAHPS results are expected late 2025. In the interim, see DHCS’s 2023 and 2024 Medi-Cal CAHPS Survey Summary Reports.
2025 Annual Work Plan - Southern California
The QIHETP work plan lists the projects and goals we’re working on. It keeps track of how well we’re improving the fairness and quality of health care for our members.
Goals and Plans
Main Goal: Make health care better for Medi-Cal members by focusing on the most important areas.
How we’ll do it:
- Take actions to reach our goals.
- Assign responsible people to complete tasks by set deadlines.
- Check results and figure out what worked and what didn’t.
- Identify problems and find ways to fix them.
- Plan next steps to continue improving care.
The 12 projects are:
1. Project: Kaiser Permanente Statewide Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) Clinical Performance Improvement Project
Goal: Help more Black or African American children who have Medi-Cal get regular health check-ups in their first 30 months of life; focusing on getting six or more check-ups by the time they are 15 months old and keep getting check-ups until they are 2.5 years old.
Deadline: 12/31/2025
Steps to reach the goal:
- Send reports to DHCS on time.
- Share updates on our progress with important groups and leaders.
- Check the data often to see if we are improving.
- Teach healthcare workers and children’s parents why this is important.
- Work with local healthcare teams to share good ideas.
- Find new ways to improve by learning from other health plans.
- Have regular meetings to track our progress.
2. Project: Kaiser Permanente Statewide DHCS Non-Clinical Performance Improvement Project
Goal: Make sure more doctors are notified within 7 days if their patients go to the emergency room for drug use or mental health problems.
Deadline: 12/31/2025
Steps to reach the goal:
- Send reports to DHCS on time.
- Share updates on our progress with important groups and leaders.
- Check the data often to see if we are improving.
- Work with local healthcare teams to share good ideas.
- Find new ways to improve by learning from other health plans.
- Have regular meetings to track our progress.
- Create a system to track notifications and find problems.
- Improve how hospitals talk to doctors.
- Set up automatic alerts so doctors get messages faster.
- Work with emergency rooms to notify Kaiser Permanente doctors within 7 days.
3. DHCS MCAS Measure: Lead Screening in Children
Goal: Make sure more children and teens get fluoride treatments twice a year to prevent cavities.
Deadline: 12/31/2025
Steps to reach the goal:
- Send reports to DHCS on time.
- Share updates on our progress with important groups and leaders.
- Check the data often to see if we are improving.
- Work with local healthcare teams to share good ideas.
- Find new ways to improve by learning from other health plans.
- Have regular meetings to track our progress.
- Start a statewide plan to improve oral health.
- Work with doctors and dentists to ensure children get fluoride treatments with documentation.
- Connect families with dental resources in the community.
- Improve communication so families know where to find dental care.
- Make it easier to see a dentist and reduce waiting times for appointments.
- Keep using the electronic system to alert doctors and track fluoride treatments for children at certain ages.
- Offer clinic appointment fluoride treatment option.
4. Project: DHCS Collaborative Initiatives
Goal: Work with the state (DHCS) on projects to help improve children’s health, focusing on fairness and equal care.
Deadline: 12/31/2025
Steps to reach the goal:
- Send reports to DHCS on time.
- Share updates on our progress with important groups and leaders.
- Check the data often to see if we are improving.
- Work with local healthcare teams to share good ideas.
- Find new ways to improve by learning from other health plans.
- Have regular meetings to track our progress.
- Join and help with the important projects for children’s health in 2024-2025.
- Complete all the tasks in the first part of the project (Phase 1).
- Share what we learned from the projects with our team and leaders for their feedback and support.
- Decide if it is a good idea to take part in the next part of the project (2025-2026).
5. Project: External Quality Review Recommendations
Goal: Fix problems and follow the advice from the 2023-2024 review of Kaiser’s healthcare services in Southern California.
Deadline: 12/31/2025
Steps to reach the goal:
- Check the actions already taken to fix issues based on the review report.
- Follow the advice given to make our health care services better.
- Work with the health department to fix any problems found in the 2024 review and make sure all rules are followed for better care.