North Carolina has great doctors who are dedicated to delivering high quality care to their patients. Given the numerous burdens on the health care system, however, patients don’t always receive the recommended care for certain conditions. In fact, national studies have shown patients receive just over half of all recommended health care services.

Contributing to this quandary are the more than 1,800 evidence-based clinical guidelines to treat patients with different health conditions. These guidelines change over time and new ones are developed, as health professionals gather new evidence about what treatments work best for different conditions. The vast array and changing nature of the practice guidelines make it difficult for physicians to know what guidelines to implement and keep up with all the newest recommended care guidelines.

New models of practice are needed to effectively implement appropriate guidelines, improve quality of care, and positively affect health outcomes. Physicians and other providers are trained to treat individual patients. The one-on-one relationships between physicians and their patients, as well as the effectiveness of care, can be enhanced or impaired, by the availability or lack of community supports addressing the patients’ needs. 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.

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.

Initially, the GQI will focus on health care for diabetes, asthma, congestive heart failure, high blood pressure, and heart attacks. These conditions were selected because they affect many North Carolinians, and there is solid evidence about the best way to treat people with these health problems. As the GQI evolves, other conditions will be included.

Practices will receive annual reports on their performance on these measures, so that they can identify needed areas of improvement. In order to improve the care provided to all North Carolinians, practices will be provided technical assistance and other forms or practice support. In addition, consumers will be provided with information about their health condition so that they can more actively manage their health.

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.