By Patricia Noonan, MBA, RN, CCM, CDP, FCM
The CMSA Foundation Advancing Its Mission
When the CMSA Foundation was established in 2008 as a charitable, non-profit organization, its Founders envisioned a better future for the case management industry through a collaborative, inclusive community of healthcare professionals working together to build industry-wide solutions to case management issues.
Today, the CMSA Foundation continues to advance its mission “to impact the practice of case management by funding and publishing research and process improvement, thereby increasing awareness of case management contributions to the healthcare industry.” In fact, as of 2025, the CMSA Foundation has provided nearly $58,000.00 in total funding for awards, scholarships, and grants to advance its mission in support of professional case management practice.
The Role of Case Management’s Contribution to the Quintuple Aim
Professional Case Managers contribute to the Quintuple Aim through effective case management practice grounded in CMSA’s Standards of Practice for Case Management, including case managers pursuing practice excellence, innovation, and research, and participating in quality management that supports quality improvement projects and outcomes aligned with the goals of the Quintuple Aim.
What is the Quintuple Aim?
Factors impacting our current complex healthcare system, such as the rise in chronic conditions, poor quality and safety experiences, the high cost of healthcare, care team burnout, and health inequities, have led to the imperative to achieve the Quintuple Aim. The Quintuple Aim builds on the goals of the Triple Aim and Quadruple Aim by adding a Fifth Aim to advance health equity. The Quintuple Aim addresses the imperative for all healthcare organizations to focus quality improvement efforts on these Five Aims:
- improving the health of populations
- improving the patient/client experience of care
- Reducing the cost of health care
- improving care team well-being
- advancing health equity
The Triple Aim
In 2008, when the landmark article “The Triple Aim: Care, Health, Cost” by Dr. Berwick and colleagues from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) was published, it served as a call to action for all stakeholders in the healthcare industry to make it their mission to improve population health, improve the experience of care, and reduce the cost of care. The article addressed a lack of focus on practice improvement efforts to achieve quality, efficient, patient-centered care by the healthcare industry, and that by addressing all three aims, healthcare organizations could make a significant impact on the populations being served all across the country and the world. The Triple Aim soon became widely accepted as the “North Star” for healthcare improvement efforts.
The Quadruple Aim
In 2014, when the landmark article “From Triple Aim to Quadruple Aim: Care of the Patient Requires Care of the Provider” by Drs. Bodenheimer & Sinsky was published, and the authors recommended that, for all providers of healthcare to work towards achieving The Triple Aim, attention be paid to a Fourth Aim: improving care team well-being, given the negative impact of workforce burnout on patient outcomes and experiences. This recommendation set the stage for the Quadruple Aim to be widely accepted in the healthcare community.
The Quintuple Aim
Then, in 2022, when the article “The Quintuple Aim for Healthcare Improvement: A New Imperative to Advance Health Equity” by Dr. Nundy and colleagues was published, the authors made a case for adding a Fifth Aim: advancing health equity. This call to action resulted in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, which brought attention to long-standing inequities in healthcare that lead to poor outcomes. The authors argued that by adding a Fifth Aim to address health equity in practice improvement efforts, this would improve health equity among “the populations that need this support the most.”
The Vision of the CMSA Foundation
Through the vision of the CMSA Foundation which is to “become the leading philanthropic organization that enhances the practice of case management resulting in health improvements for those we serve,” award winning practice improvement, scholarly research, and public policy advocacy projects are now published in the CMSA Foundation Library and made available to the case management community across the world. The CMSA Foundation Library serves as a repository of evidence-based practices in case management. To learn more about these award-winning projects and how they align with the goals of the Quintuple Aim, please go to https://www.cmsafoundation.org/cmpiaward
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Bio: Patricia Noonan, MBA, RN, CCM, CDP, FCM, is a passionate advocate for professional case management practice with over twenty years’ experience in case management leadership roles. She has served on the CMSA Board and CMSA Foundation Board. Patricia currently serves as Chair of the CMSA Public Information Committee; Director on the CMSA Foundation Board; and Chair of the CMSNE Membership Committee. She is experienced in Population Health: ACO, Medicare, Medicaid, Commercial and Employee care management program development. She has published articles and presented on important case management topics. Patricia is the recipient of the CMSA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2025, CMSA CMOY Award in 2021, CMSA AOSE Award in 2017, and was recognized as a CMSA Case Management Fellow (FCM) in 2022.