The Appropriate Care Measures (ACM) Project

The ACM project focuses on providing appropriate care to patients diagnosed with acute myocardial infarction, heart failure and pneumonia. Twelve New Mexico hospitals have pledged to work with the New Mexico Medical Review Association (NMMRA) to achieve this goal by the end of 2006. Participants are implementing necessary system changes leading to transformational improvements in the 10 publicly reportable quality-of-care measures:

Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI)

• Aspirin at arrival
• Aspirin at discharge
• Beta blockers at arrival
• Beta blockers at discharge
• Angiotensin Converting Enzyme (ACE) inhibitors

Heart Failure (HF)

• Left ventricular function assessment
• ACE inhibitor for left ventricular systolic dysfunction

Pneumonia

• Antibiotics received within four hours of arrival
• Oxygenation assessment
• Pneumococcal vaccination

ACM Tools and Resources

The New Mexico Medical Review Association (NMMRA) has compiled an ACM Change Package CD-ROM, which contains tools, literature, and resources to help hospitals improve the quality of care they provide. To order a CD for your facility, contact NMMRA's Hospital Team at (505) 998-9759. Here are some of the tools featured:

AMI Tools

HF Tools

Pneumonia Tools

Access a Pneumonia and Vaccinations WebEx (Susan Kellie, MD, University of New Mexico Hospital/Veterans Administration).

Access a recorded WebEx on improving initial antibiotic received within four hours of arrival for pneumonia patients (Terry Altpeter, PhD, RN, University of Louisville Hospital).

ACM Measurement

The ACM score is a composite measure. Each patient must receive all care for which he or she is eligible in order to be counted in the numerator of the measure.

Participants in this project were selected from an applicant pool of New Mexico’s acute care hospitals.

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