Quality of Care Programs
Clinical Guidelines Program
The Clinical Guidelines Program is a collaborative effort of the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) AIDS Institute, Office of the Medical Director (OMD), and the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) School of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases. Established in 1986 in response to the clinical management challenges of HIV/AIDS, the program has continuously addressed the HIV care and prevention needs of clinicians, supportive service providers, and consumers in New York State. In recent years, the AIDS Institute expanded its mission to support the efforts of those who provide medical care and services to LGBTQ people and to people living with hepatitis C virus (HCV), sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and substance use. The guidelines program has evolved to also address these expanding priority areas in addition to HIV care and prevention.
AIDS Institute clinical guidelines are developed by committees of expert New York State clinicians. Committee members collaborate to survey and evaluate peer-reviewed literature, write and assess clinical recommendations, and update existing guidelines or create new guidelines as necessary to ensure that recommendations reflect current best practices. All new and revised guidelines undergo peer and consumer review.
Members of the committees use their expertise to evaluate important factors that determine treatment decisions, including potential benefits, risks, and burdens to the patient; patient views, values and preferences; feasibility and tolerability; and the quality of evidence supporting a treatment recommendation. All recommendations are assigned ratings based on the strength and quality of the supporting evidence. Current committees include:
- Medical Care Criteria Committee (Adult and Adolescent HIV and related guidelines)
- Hepatitis C Committee
- Perinatal Transmission Committee
- Substance Use Committee
- Steering Committee
All new and updated guidelines are published on the open access website, www.hivguidelines.org, making them available to users throughout New York State and worldwide. Guidelines users can sign up for the program’s monthly newsletter, Topics, Trends, and Updates to receive a monthly email with notification of new guidelines or updates and other highlights from the Clinical Guidelines Program, including hot topics, events, What We’re Reading, trends in guideline use, and more. The Clinical Guidelines Program leadership, staff, committee members, and reviewers are committed to publishing guidelines that are used in the real world by busy care providers, who find them to be useful and readily accessible with immediate application in daily practice
Contact:
Laura Duggan Russell, MPH
Clinical Guidelines Program
Office of the Medical Director
(518) 473-8815
Laura.Russell@health.ny.gov
For more information:
https://www.hivguidelines.org
Part A HIV Quality Management Program
The Ryan White Part A HIV Quality Management Program, a partnership with the New York City Department of Health Mental Health (NYCDOHMH) Care and Treatment program, focuses on supporting quality management capacity in programs receiving Part A funding in the New York Eligible Metropolitan Area (EMA), which includes New York City and Tri-county (Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties). Mutual program goals are to improve the quality of supportive services, strengthen provider infrastructure, promote intersectional patient equity, and facilitate improvement activities at every stage along the HIV care continuum.
This program aligns the goals of quality management, program service objectives, evaluation, and patient outcomes in a consequential way. It is intended to increase the involvement of all program staff to broaden input and efforts toward improvement.
The Part A Quality Management Program continues to promote targeted coaching and support to assist providers in identifying quality infrastructure needs, provide guidance as needed in developing quality improvement projects and in selecting and testing changes, with the overarching goal to support and sustain quality efforts by building service provider capacity. The program uses quality improvement consultants who demonstrate their expertise by working with programs to apply tools and methodologies. The Quality Management Program assists NYCDOHMH partners in the Care and Treatment program to promote health equity and more integrated quality management activities.
Each year, the program works in collaboration with NYCDOHMH Care and Treatment program to coordinate and present the Power of Quality Improvement conference.
This conference provides a forum for peer learning and supports continued improvement efforts in Part A-funded programs. Approximately 300 people participate in this conference. Launched in 2014, this conference allows Ryan White Part A (RWPA)-funded programs to present quality improvement projects to one another and other key stakeholders in the EMA.
The conference title – “The Power of Quality Improvement” – captures the spirit and emphasis of the day-long event. RWPA providers from throughout the EMA are invited to submit abstracts and receive technical assistance from NYCDOHMH and AIDS Institute staff to develop ideas for presentation. RWPA providers also receive coaching to help them turn projects into presentations. Many presentations highlight the distinctive role that providers of supportive services play to help people living with HIV (PLWH) engage in care and achieve viral load suppression. Peer learning drives the conference, providing an effective means to build capacity and stimulate improvement.
Contact:
Febuary D’Auria
Office of the Medical Director
631-851-3625
Febuary.DAuria@health.ny.gov
For more information:
https://quality.aidsinstituteny.org/QualImprove/QualImprove/AboutNYCPartAProgram
