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Aurora Health Care has been one of the top performing health care systemssince the Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration project's inception fouryears ago. The initiative focuses on improving the quality of patient care incongestive heart failure, heart attack, pneumonia, heart bypass surgery, andhip and knee replacement.
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In the Year 3 results that were just released, Aurora hospitals haveexcelled in several of the quality areas.
-- Aurora's hospitals are top performers in 40 of the 47 quality areasthat are measured. This is the most of any system.
-- Aurora hospitals received incentive payments in 24 quality areas, themost of any system in the country.
-- Ten of the Aurora hospitals that have been a part of the qualityeffort are in the top for care of people with pneumonia.
"We've committed to finding better ways of care that lead to high quality,high-efficiency and low-costs. These results help to reinforce that Aurora ismaking good on that promise to the communities we serve," said Nick Turkal,M.D., Aurora President and CEO. "We believe strongly in integrated care,which is a better model for the patients we serve. It enables us to providecare across all settings so patients have easy access to the best care andservice."
"These measures of excellence in the hospital setting are made possible bythe excellent care our caregivers provide in all of our settings acrosseastern Wisconsin, including physician offices, home health, pharmacies, andhospice. It is no longer about being good. It is about pursuing perfection,"Turkal added.
Based on third-year results from the Hospital Quality IncentiveDemonstration, Aurora will receive a bonus payment of nearly $376,000 for the24 areas that are in the top 20 percent. CMS awarded incentive payments ofmore than $7 million to 112 hospitals. Overall, 206 awards were given to top-performing hospitals in the third year of the project.
"While the incentive payments reflect the high level of results deliveredby our caregivers, this effort is not about the money. We are motivated byour commitment to find better ways to provide people with better results and abetter care experience than they can get anywhere else," added Turkal.
The dollars awarded to Aurora have been utilized to further improve careand provide data to physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and other caregivers.
"Hospitals participating in the Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstrationproject make quality a top priority from the hospital board on down," saidStephanie Alexander, Premier senior vice president. "These top-performinghospitals -- small and large, urban and rural, teaching and non-teaching --have demonstrated a continuous and sustained improvement, and we commend themfor their dedication to provide the highest-quality patient care."
The hospital quality results follow a recent study by Benefit ServicesGroup that concluded Aurora is the most cost efficient hospital system in theMilwaukee area.
"These results are all about delivering on the promise that we have madeto communities to deliver the best care, improve the health of Wisconsin, andbe excellent stewards of health care dollars," said Turkal. This is aboutchanging the model to what patients need most. As a not for profit health caresystem, we owe it to the people and communities we serve. This is what wedeliver."
About the Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration project
The Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration is the first national projectof its kind, designed to determ
