WASHINGTON, May 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Two hospitals
and one health system are now delivering improved clinical outcomes
at lower cost, thanks to a concerted move toward accountable care
that promotes hospital-physician collaboration and leverages
physician-level cost and quality performance data.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110802/PH45999LOGO
)
On May 3 in Orlando, The Advisory Board Company will honor
these institutions with the 2012 Crimson Physician Partnership
Award for improving the quality of care they provide while
documenting more than $13.2 million
in aggregate savings:
- Virginia Hospital Center (Arlington),
- Alegent Health (Omaha),
and
- Monmouth Medical Center (Long Branch,
N.J.).
The award presentation will take place at the Crimson Annual
Performance Summit at the JW Marriott Orlando Grande Lakes in
Orlando. The awards, now in their third year, are presented
to administrator-physician leadership teams at organizations that
are members of the Crimson physician performance technologies
cohort. Crimson (R) is a program from The Advisory Board
Company that helps hospitals and health systems advance quality
goals and secure cost savings by eliminating inefficiencies in care
delivery.
Virginia Hospital Center Improves Clinical
Documentation
The 342-bed facility found that its clinical documentation often
did not reflect the complexity of pneumonia being treated. At
the same time, the hospital was experiencing financial losses due
to fast-rising numbers of Medicare patients, and physician
performance data showed that the greatest losses were occurring
across ventilated patients. The institution utilized quality
and cost performance data to engage physicians on improving
documentation and clinical performance, resulting in a 38% decrease
in its mortality observed/expected ratio, a 14% decrease in average
length of stay , and a 26% reduction in cost per case. The
net financial impact of the efforts was annualized savings of more
than $635,000.
"We have been preparing Virginia Hospital Center and our
physicians for a new era of public accountability when consumers
will have unprecedented access to a wide range of data such as
readmissions and patient surveys," said Jeffrey DiLisi, MD, Vice President and Chief
Medical Officer at Virginia Hospital Center. "We have had
success with our physicians in improving clinical documentation–and
the resulting care outcomes–because our physicians have been able
to see the impact on quality of care and on their great
reputations. Crimson has enabled us to make performance data
transparent so we can eliminate documentation errors and move
toward breaking even on Medicare cases."
Alegent Health Enhances Care Effectiveness and
Efficiency
This 10-hospital health system has physicians and nurses aligned
to collaborate with interdisciplinary care teams at each of its
facilities to reduce unnecessary utilization of medical
resources. The system's 100-day "Care Redesign" projects have
yielded more than $2 million in
annualized savings. The system also improved or maintained
98.9% of its quality metrics for targeted diagnoses; further,
patient experience scores showed a record improvement. For
example, Alegent Health Lakeside Hospital, a 157-bed hospital in
Omaha, focused on nonhemorrhagic
stroke patients and eliminated complications of care for 13
months.
"Our culture of clinical improvement has grown with rapid-cycle
Care Redesign projects," said Rick
Miller, DO, Senior Vice President and Chief Quality Officer,
Alegent Health. "For each diagnosis-specific project, case
managers, nurses, physicians, and therapists work together to
identify a specific opportunity to reduce resource utilization and
meet weekly with a system-level steering committee to discuss
progress and results. It's a repeatable process that has
allowed us to share best practices across the system and among
physicians. This never would have been possible without
Crimson's outstanding tool for collaboration with
clinicians."
Monmouth Medical Center Lifts Clinical Effectiveness
Institutionwide
Since 2008, this 527-bed teaching hospital has developed care
efficiency initiatives across clinical areas such as joint
replacements, vaginal deliveries, and heart failure. In
addition to contributing $10.6
million in cost savings, these projects have also driven
widespread improvement in key quality measures. In 2007
Monmouth ranked among the top 10%
of U.S. hospitals on 16 of 24 core measures for quality (67%) but
in 2011 did so on 23 of 24 core measures (96%).
"For decades we've been working to improve care quality while
reducing costs," said Thomas
Heleotis, MD, VP of Clinical Effectiveness for Monmouth
Medical Center. "The breakthrough came when we were able to
engage physicians on their performance data through the use of
Crimson. Now that physicians can easily look up their own
data and track their performance, they can see clear, actionable
steps for clinical improvement."
Out of a national Crimson cohort of more than 550 individual
hospitals representing more than 360,000 physicians, these three
institutions have distinguished themselves as leaders in care
efficiency. "The Physician Partnership Award winning-
institutions have made key, long-term organizational gains that
will benefit patients and their communities," said Paul Roscoe, CEO, Crimson. "By engaging
their physicians in meaningful ways through quality and cost
performance data, these institutions have strengthened the
alignment needed to succeed under risk-based payments from private
and public payers."
For more information on the 2012 Crimson Physician Partnership
Awards, including videos on the award winners, visit
http://www.advisory.com/award.
About Virginia Hospital Center
For over 60 years, Virginia Hospital Center has provided
exceptional medical services to the Washington metropolitan area. Virginia
Hospital Center is a 342-bed, $150
million state-of-the-art facility offering
comprehensive healthcare and multiple Centers of Excellence
including Cardiology & Cardiovascular Surgery, the Reinsch
Pierce Family Center for Breast Health, Neuroscience, Oncology,
Total Joint Replacement (hip and knee), Women & Infant Health
and Urology. Growing service lines include Executive Health
and the only Lung Cancer Center in northern Virginia.
Virginia Hospital Center is a teaching hospital, long-associated
with Georgetown University's School of
Medicine, and accredited by The Joint Commission and
Licensed by the Commonwealth of Virginia Department of
Health. For additional information, please visit
www.VirginiaHospitalCenter.com.
About Alegent Health
With a commitment to providing high-quality care and an
exceptional patient experience, Alegent Health, its 1,300
physicians and 8,600 employees are focused on caring for the body,
mind and spirit of every person. Patients find a continuum of care
at Alegent Health, from primary care through geriatrics. Families
can also find specialty care at Alegent Health including women's
and children's, cardiovascular, orthopedics, spine, oncology,
physical rehabilitation and behavioral health services. With the
blessing of our sponsors, Catholic Health Initiatives and Immanuel,
Alegent Health has 10 hospitals, freestanding inpatient psychiatric
and skilled nursing facilities and more than 100 sites of service
making us the largest not-for-profit, faith-based healthcare
provider in Nebraska and southwest
Iowa. For more information, visit
www.alegent.com.
About Monmouth Medical Center
Monmouth Medical Center, an affiliate of Barnabas Health, along
with the Children's Hospital at Monmouth Medical Center, is one of
New Jersey's largest academic
medical centers and has been a teaching affiliate of Philadelphia's Drexel
University College of Medicine for more than 40 years.
From its earliest days, Monmouth Medical Center has been a leader
in surgical advancement and has introduced many technological
firsts to the region, including robotic surgery and other minimally
invasive techniques. The hospital is routinely recognized by
HealthGrades, the nation's largest premier independent health care
quality company, for excellence in both emergency medicine and
maternity care. U.S. News & World Report has
recognized Monmouth as a regional
leader in cancer, geriatrics, gynecology, neurology and
neurosurgery. For more information on Monmouth Medical
Center, visit www.barnabashealth.org.
About The Advisory Board Company
The Advisory Board Company is a global technology, research, and
consulting firm partnering with 125,000 leaders in 3,700
organizations across health care and higher education. Through
its innovative membership model, the firm collaborates with
executives and their teams to elevate performance and solve their
most pressing challenges. The company provides strategic
guidance, actionable insights, web-based software solutions, and
comprehensive implementation and management services. Through
its Crimson offerings, The Advisory Board Company collaborates with
health care providers dedicated to strengthening hospital-physician
alignment, coordination among care settings, and overall clinical
performance. Combining business intelligence technology with
best practice implementation, Crimson offerings are developed with
hospitals, health systems, physicians, and other practitioners
seeking improved alignment on key clinical, operational and
strategic goals. For more information about The Advisory
Board Company, visit http://www.advisory.com.
SOURCE The Advisory Board Company