New UHC Scorecard Provides Unique Insights Into Integrated Performance in 6 Key Areas

CHICAGO, Jan. 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- UHC today introduced its new Quality and Spend Scorecard, which features balanced, integrated information to give academic medical centers (AMCs) an enhanced view of their overall performance. The scorecard has an intuitive, highly graphic executive dashboard with performance indicators for safety, efficiency, effectiveness, mortality, core measures, and spend.

"Developed specifically for UHC members, this innovative scorecard incorporates information from several UHC data sources, including SpendLINK®, the Clinical Data Base/Resource Manager™, and the Core Measures database," said Jake Groenewold, UHC senior vice president, Supply Chain. "The scorecard will provide C-level executives and service area chairpersons with the insights needed to identify improvement opportunities and make better decisions."

"Our members asked us for this kind of integrated, highly graphic tool, which breaks new ground for UHC in terms of its visual presentation of data and scope of information," said David Levine, MD, UHC vice president of informatics and medical director. "For the first time, AMCs will be able to use a single source to assess and compare their performance across a broad spectrum of meaningful metrics in key service areas."

The scorecard will initially focus on service areas with high expenses and a broad range of spend variability, such as cardiology, orthopedics, neurosurgery, and cardiac surgery. For example, one screen for efficiency in the cardiology section shows the direct cost per case for different products (e.g., defibrillators, stents, and pacemakers) as well as indexes for those direct costs and length of stay. The mortality section of the scorecard highlights the mortality index for this same subgroup of products.

In addition to the executive-level views, the Quality and Spend Scorecard offers more in-depth information through its drill-down capabilities. This level of detail will help service area teams develop targeted and effective performance improvement initiatives and monitor their progress.

According to Levine, the scorecard was designed to be suitable for the changes already occurring in health care. Plans to enhance the scorecard and expand into other service areas are under way.

The Quality and Spend Scorecard is free to UHC Clinical Data Base/Resource Manager™ subscribers.

About UHC
UHC is an alliance of the nation's leading nonprofit academic medical centers, which are focused on delivering world-class patient care. Based in Chicago, Ill, UHC fosters collaboration with and among its 115 academic medical center and 259 affiliated hospital members through its renowned programs and services in the areas of comparative data and analytics, performance improvement, supply chain management, strategic research, and public policy. UHC helps its members achieve excellence in quality, safety, and cost-effectiveness. Formed in 1984, UHC's membership includes more than 90% of the nonprofit academic medical centers in the United States. For more information, visit uhc.edu.

SOURCE UHC