Foundation News
The Medical Center earns Top Performer status in Medicare, Premier Healthcare Alliance VBP Project 8/25/2009
The Medical Center has been named a top performer in a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Premier healthcare alliance value-based purchasing (VBP) project that rewards hospitals for delivering high quality care in five clinical areas.
Based on fourth-year results from the Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration (HQID) project, The Medical Center earned an award for Top Performance in the clinical area of coronary artery bypass graft, ranking it in the top 20 percent of hospitals participating in the project for this clinical area. The Medical Center also received four awards for Attainment in the clinical areas of acute myocardial infarction (heart attack), pneumonia, coronary artery bypass graft, and hip and knee replacement. Attainment awards are given to hospitals that attain or exceed the median level composite quality score (CQS) benchmark from two years prior. Due to its successes, The Medical Center will receive a bonus payment of over $48,000 from CMS, which awarded incentive payments of approximately $12 million to 225 hospitals.
Over the course of the first four years of the project, The Medical Center has received six overall awards, including two Top Performance and four Attainment awards in four clinical areas, receiving approximately $78,000 in awards. CMS has awarded more than $36.5 million over the first four years of the project.
“At The Medical Center, providing outstanding patient care is at the center of our mission,” said Connie Smith, Chief Executive Officer of The Medical Center. “We continually focus on quality improvement, and these awards are a testament to the hard work and dedication of our staff to provide the highest level of care for our patients.”
“The successes of the hospitals – small and large, urban and rural, teaching and non-teaching – in the HQID project have led to its consideration as the basis for key national health reforms,” said Susan DeVore, Premier president and CEO. “As the proposal of a national value-based purchasing program becomes a reality, hospitals participating in HQID will have six years experience with such a model.”
About the HQID project
The HQID is the first national project of its kind, designed to determine if economic incentives to hospitals are effective at improving the quality of inpatient care. Through the project, which has been extended by CMS for an additional three years, Premier collects a set of more than 30 evidence-based clinical quality measures from almost 250 hospitals across the country. The quality measures were developed by government and private organizations (for more information on the indicators, visit: www.qualitydemo.com). HQID tracks process and outcome measures in five clinical areas – acute myocardial infarction (AMI), heart failure, coronary artery bypass graft (CABG), pneumonia, and hip and knee replacement.
About Premier Inc., 2006 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient
The Premier healthcare alliance is more than 2,200 U.S. hospitals and 58,000-plus other healthcare sites working together to improve healthcare quality and affordability. Premier maintains the nation's most comprehensive repository of clinical, financial and outcomes information and operates a leading healthcare purchasing network. A world leader in helping deliver measurable improvements in care, Premier works with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the United Kingdom's National Health Service North West to improve hospital performance. Premier has offices in San Diego, Charlotte, N.C., Philadelphia and Washington.
About The Medical Center
The Medical Center at Bowling Green is the flagship hospital for Commonwealth Health Corporation (CHC). Located in Bowling Green, Ky., The Medical Center is a 302-bed, full service, not-for-profit hospital specializing in heart, cancer care, obstetrics and neonatology, and orthopaedic services. With a mission to care for people and improve the quality of life in the communities it serves, CHC and its entities including The Medical Center at Bowling Green contributed $55.7 million in community benefit in fiscal year 2008. The Medical Center treats patients regardless of their ability to pay and annually provides millions in community benefit through charity care for the uninsured and shortfalls in governmental reimbursements (Medicare and Medicaid). To learn more, visit www.TheMedicalCenter.org.
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