Supporting the QIO Program’s Centralized Communications

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) Program is the largest federal program dedicated to improving health quality at the community level. CMS came to Sage to support QIO Program communications and help promote widespread understanding and positive perceptions in the audiences critical to the success of the QIO Program.

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Situation:

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) Program is the largest federal program dedicated to improving health quality at the community level. The QIO Program is administered at the local level by 41 private contractors (QIOs) in 53 jurisdictions, butdrew public scrutiny in 2006 as a result of an Institute of Medicine report that questioned the program’s value.To address the medical community’s reaction to the report, the Virginia Health Quality Center (VHQC) hired Sage as a sub-contractor comprising the Communications QIO Support Center (QIOSC) team.

Objectives:

The overall objective of the Communications QIOSC team was to inform the public of the organization’s true mission as a national network that engages providers and empowers Medicare beneficiaries. The team was also tasked with effectively creating widespread, positive changes in the attitudes and understanding of the audiences critical to the funding and success of the QIO Program. For Sage, to achieve that objective meant the sterling completion of all contract deliverables on time and within budget. Sage deliverables included both strategic and tactical tasks for a large variety of marketing communications and public relations initiatives.

Our Process: 

Because of the many overlapping initiatives for which Sage was responsible, close internal communication and collaboration was extremely important for the Sage team. Sage began work on the project by assigning team leads to both the marketing communications and public relations teams. These team leaders communicated daily to keep every part of the project moving forward. The entire Sage team also took part in weekly status calls with the entire Communications QIOSC team to ensure that all research, instruction and knowledge were being shared with all relevant parties.

The Communications QIOSC team performed extensive market research through surveys, focus groups and workshops. The resulting information was very valuable when Sage began developing a comprehensive program branding initiative. The branding initiative included developing a national program visual identity and a message framework to help consistency in written and spoken communications; a brand guidelines manual to standardize the visual and messaging brand assets; and a number of templates and tools that would ensure the consistent dissemination of the national program brand at the community level.

The program branding initiative also required a number of tactical tasks for Sage to execute, including content development, design and production of bi-monthly eNewsletters and two annual reports to program stakeholders; weekly media monitoring to provide program communicators with media tips on how to link national observances to local QIO activities; graphic design services to produce a series of fact sheets used in provider recruitment and the planning and production of themes and presentations for the QIO Program’s annual QualityNet conference.

Results: 

Throughout the course of the contract, Sage provided comprehensive marketing and PR support for the Communications QIOSC team as it promoted positive perceptions and behaviors among the audiences critical to the success of the QIO Program. For the first time since the program began over 30 years ago, a national program brand was planned using research-based methodologies, then developed and successfully implemented. QIO News, the bi-monthly eNewsletter for the QIO Program, saw an increase of 1,760 subscribers since Sage took over the writing and production of the publication. In August 2011, Sage received the non-competitive renewal of our contract, and will continue to plan and execute national QIO Program communications initiatives that positively shape the perceptions and behaviors of program stakeholders and the American public.