Governor Easley believes that every North Carolinian should have access to physicians who are practicing state of the art medicine. To accomplish this goal Governor Easley has called the health care community into action to form the Governor’s Quality Initiative (GQI), to ensure that North Carolinians with certain conditions receive the best available care. This initiative will identify a common set of guidelines for physicians to use throughout the state to improve the quality and reduce the variation of care received from different providers.

A community-based approach is needed to address the growing numbers of older adults and people with chronic illnesses. With broad community support, we can improve the quality of health care of all North Carolinians by ensuring that evidence-based best practices are applied uniformly across the entire state.

This initiative is only possible due to the unique partnership of physicians, hospitals, insurers, state government, and other organizations committed to improving healthcare quality in North Carolina. Empowering our physicians with the tools to measure the care they deliver and using uniform evidence-based guidelines will improve health outcomes, lower costs, and create a healthier North Carolina.