Minnesota to take part in $300 million quality project
MINNEAPOLIS, June 5, 2008—The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) announced a $1 million investment in MN Community Measurement Thursday as part of its $300 million initiative to eliminate regional and racial health care disparities.
The announcement marked the second phase of the initiative, known as Aligning Forces for Quality, which started in 2006 and includes 14 different regions of the country.
The MMA is a founding member and financial supporter of MN Community Measurement.
Princeton, N.J-based RWJF will provide MN Community Measurement $1 million over three years, technical expertise, and access to future grants. MN Community Measurement will use the money to develop a measure related to patient satisfaction, to start collecting race-based data, and to start tracking some hospital measures, said Jim Chase, executive director, MN Community Measurement.
RWJF has committed to $300 million in funding for the project through 2011. That spending includes national research that is ongoing and has been completed, grants to groups like the one to MN Community Measurement, technical support from the foundation, and another $60 million for research that will analyze the results of the project.
A top goal of the project is to reduce ethnic disparities, which is an area where Minnesota has some work to do.
Analysis of Medicare data by the The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice’s “Dartmouth Atlas Project found that African Americans in Minnesota receive lower quality care and have poorer outcomes than whites in Minnesota [see charts].
For example, blacks in Minnesota are three times as likely as whites to have a leg amputated because of complications related to peripheral vascular disease and diabetes.
Leg Amputations Minnesota Average | Total | Black | White |
| 0.88 | 2.19 | 0.69 |
Rate per 1,000 Medicare beneficiaries.
Hemoglobin A1C
Minnesota Average | Total | Black | White |
| 90..2 | 83.2 | 90.3 |
Average annual percent of Medicare beneficiaries with diabetes age 65-74 having hemoglobin A1c test (2003-2005) In addition to Minnesota, Aligning Forces for Quality will concentrate its resources in 13 other states and communities across the country, including: Cincinnati, Ohio; Cleveland, Ohio; Detroit, Mich.; Humboldt County, Calif.; Kansas City, Mo.; Maine; Memphis, Tenn.; Seattle, Wash.; South Central Pennsylvania; Western Michigan; Western New York; Willamette Valley, Ore.; and Wisconsin.
The foundation’s endowment, now about $10 billion, was financed originally from the wealth of its namesake, who died in 1968 after building Johnson & Johnson into one of the world’s largest sellers of health and medical products.
See the report and find more information about Aligning Forces for Quality at www.rwjf.org/qualityequality.