Rio Grande Medicine

Our Commitment to High Quality care is something we are proud of, it is our way of showing our patients that we put their care as a top priority. It also shows health plans that we use evidence-based, and team based medicine and systematic processes to drive quality in our practice. 



Rio Grande Medicine was recognized for Exemplary Performance on Nationally Recognized Clinical Outcome Measures.

Presented by TMF Health Quality Institute, Texas Medical Association and Texas Osteopathic Medical Association, the award honors Texas physicians that are focused on utilizing health information technology to improve preventative care for their patients. RIO Grande Medicine was one of 291 physician practices in Texas to receive the 2013-2014 award. 



Rio Grande Medicine was recognized for providing outstanding cardiovascular and stroke care by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) and American Heart Association/American Stroke Association (AHA/ASA) Heart/Stroke Recognition Program. 

Recognition through the NCQA's HSRP is achieved as the result of a comprehensive, individualized review process that validates adherence to national standards of excellence in caring for patients with cardiovascular disease or who have had a stroke. 



In order to improve the quality of the care we provide to our patients, Rio Grande Medicine has voluntarily submitted to the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA)'s standards to become a Recognized Patient Centered Medical Home or (PCMH). This process was necessary as a way to validate the hard work our physicians and support staff already do. 

On January 10th Rio Grande Medicine was awarded three year Patient Centered Medical Home Recognition. Dr. Julio A. Savinon, Dr. Samuel N. Landero and Mari Bloomquist FNP, all are recognized providers. Since implementing P.C.H.M standards and gaining Recognition, Rio Grande Medicine would become the first Recognized Patient Centered Medical home in Cameron County, and the First in the Rio Grande Valley with Level III Recognition. 

Since we began our practice transformation, we have discovered many benefits along the way. Some of these benefits include enhanced clinical documentation, patient experience satisfaction through surveys, support team building, enhanced team communication, and the ability to identify and improve vulnerable areas within our practice. 

If you wish to learn more about PCMH and NCQA at you can do so by visiting: http://www.ncqa.org/Programs/Recognition.aspx 


NCQA and the American Diabetes Association developed the Diabetes Recognition Program to recognize clinicians who have met standards demonstrating delivery of high quality care to patients with diabetes. 

On January 07, 2014 Rio Grande Medicine was awarded three year Diabetes Recognition by the National Committee for Quality Assurance ( NCQA). What this means to our patients, for a person with diabetes, the right clinician can make the difference between living with diabetes as opposed to suffering from diabetes, said Margaret E. O'Kane, President, National Committee for Quality Assurance. "By earning recognition, Dr. Julio A. Savinon and the team at Rio Grande Medicine have demonstrated that they provide effective, evidence-based care to his patients with diabetes". 


On November 1, 2013 Rio Grande Medicine received the following notice from United Healthcare. UHC assigned Rio Grande Medicine "Quality & Cost Efficiency" designation which is the highest designation in their quality initiative program. 

To learn more about this initiative visit: http://www.unitedhealthcareonline.com/b2c/CmaAction.do?channelId=a7b0465138a17210VgnVCM1000002f10b10a____ 

Rio Grande Medicine Received Level III- Hypertension Program Recognition from Bridges to Excellence / HealthCare Incentives Improvement Institute. 

For more information on the recognition programs by BTE see the Healthcare Incentive Institute recognition Web at http://wwwhci3.org/what_is_bte 


Rio Grande Received Level III- Diabetes Program Recognition from Bridges to Excellence / Healthcare Incentives Improvement Institute. 

For more information on the recognition programs by BTE see the Healthcare Incentive Institute recognition Web at http://wwwhci3.org/what_is_bte 


Rio Grande Medicine Received the 2012 Texas Physician Practice Quality Improvement award. This award was sponsored by TMF Health Quality Institute, and the Texas Medical Association.For more information on the awards program, see the TMF Quality Institute awards Web at http://award.tmf.org/ 


In April of 2013 the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) approved Rio Grande Medicine to be a part of the RGV Accountable Care Organization (ACO). 

What's an ACO? 

Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are groups of doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers, who come together voluntarily to give coordinated high quality care to their Medicare patients. 

The goal of coordinated care is to ensure that patients, especially the chronically ill, get the right care at the right time, while avoiding unnecessary duplication of services and preventing medical errors. When an ACO succeeds both in both delivering high-quality care and spending health care dollars more wisely, it will share in the savings it achieves for the Medicare program. 

Medicare offers several ACO programs / models:

• Medicare Shared Savings Program — a program that helps a Medicare fee-for-service program providers become an ACO. Apply Now.
• Advance Payment ACO Model — a supplementary incentive program for selected participants in the Shared Savings Program.
• Pioneer ACO Model — a program designed for early adopters of coordinated care. No longer accepting applications.

Organizations across the country have already transformed the way they deliver care, in ways similar to the ACOs that Medicare supports. 

To learn more about our ACO please visit: http://www.rgvaco.com 

To learn more about ACO's visit: http://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Medicare-Fee-for-Service-Payment/ACO/index.html 

* To learn more about our ACO initiative please visit: http://www.rgvaco.com 


We believe that measurement is the foundation for improvement, and that what we measure must be as efficient as possible. That is the reason why we joined PPRNET. 

PPRNET is a practice based research network out of the Medical University of South Carolina. Our practice Rio Grande Medicine joined PPRNET in 2009, having joined PPRNET has enabled our practice to track quality and identify areas of improvement in the care we give to our patients from quarter to quarter and year to year. Thanks to the qualified analysts at PPRNET our dedicated clinical staff can track more than 62 quality measures on all of our patient population. This process allows us to identify patients who are meeting specific criterions and patients who are not meeting criteria or are not at goal. 

The following are some examples of how our practice tracks progress. We want to thank the PPRNET team who approved for us to show this information our website. To learn more about PPRNET research opportunities please visit: http://academicdepartments.musc.edu/pprnet