Hospital-Physician Alignment Improves Health Care Quality, Creates $13.2M Savings

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. 

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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