Sutter Medical Network Physician Organizations Earn Quality Honors

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Sept. 23, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Seven physician organizations connected to Sutter Health received recognition today for their excellence in medical care from the Integrated Healthcare Association (IHA), a renowned industry leadership group in California.

Nearly 200 physician organizations, representing approximately 35,000 physicians who provide care for about 9 million patients, participate in the IHA statewide Pay for Performance (P4P) program. In addition to recognizing efforts to offer patients the highest quality medical care possible, IHA honored physician organizations that demonstrated the greatest improvement in care quality from 2012 to 2013. Sutter Medical Network members honored include the following physician organizations.

Sacramento/Central Valley Region

• Quality Performer – Sutter Gould Medical Foundation, serving San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Merced counties
• Quality Performer – Sutter Medical Foundation – Sutter Medical Group, serving Sacramento, El Dorado, Solano, Yuba, Placer and Nevada counties

San Francisco/Oakland Bay Area

• Quality Performer – Palo Alto Medical Foundation – Mills-Peninsula Division / Mills-Peninsula Medical Group, serving San Mateo county
• Quality Performer – Palo Alto Medical Foundation – Palo Alto Foundation Medical Group, serving Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Mateo and Alameda counties
• Quality Performer – Sutter East Bay Medical Foundation, serving Alameda and Contra Costa counties
• Quality Performer – Sutter Pacific Medical Foundation – Sutter Medical Group of the Redwoods, serving Sonoma and Lake counties
• Most Improved – Brown & Toland – Alta Bates Medical Group, serving Alameda and Contra Costa counties

"Across our Sutter Health network we're constantly focused on improving how we deliver health care, whether it's at the bedside or in our administrative operations. Honors like these recognize the extraordinary partnership shared among our medical teams to deliver high-value care that's personalized to our patients' needs," said Jeff Burnich, M.D., senior vice president and executive officer for the Sutter Medical Network.

With today's recognition, Palo Alto Medical Foundation became the only IHA recognized physician organization to receive the quality performer recognition every year since 2003.

"Enhancing the health of people in our communities has been our priority, and we're proud to be recognized as a consistent quality performer for over a decade," said Richard Slavin, M.D., chief executive officer, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, and IHA board director. "We have participated in the P4P program since its inception, and work hard to achieve breakthrough improvements in clinical quality and the patient experience," he added. 

About the IHA Awards

Responsible for collecting data, deploying a common measure set, and reporting results, IHA represents the longest-running U.S. example of data aggregation and standardized results reporting across diverse regions and multiple health plans. California consumers benefit from the availability of standardized performance results from a common measure set, available to the public through the State of California, Office of the Patient Advocate.

Quality Performer: IHA determines winners in this category by calculating composite scores in each of the three P4P quality measurement domains, which are then weighted to compute an overall composite score. A physician organization whose overall composite score meets a comprehensive threshold based on the top 25 percent score for each measure included in P4P earns designation as a quality performer.

Most Improved: IHA determines winners in this category by calculating the relative improvement for each physician group on the overall performance composite score for this year compared to the overall performance composite score for last year. A group must improve performance in all P4P quality measurement domains. The physician group in each of the eight P4P regions with the highest improvement score for overall performance earns recognition as  the most improved group in that region.

About Sutter Health

Serving patients and their families in more than 100 Northern California cities and towns, Sutter Health doctors, not-for-profit hospitals, home health care and other health care service providers share resources and expertise to advance health care quality and access. The Sutter Medical Network includes many of California's top-performing, highest quality physician organizations as measured annually by the Integrated Healthcare Association. Sutter-affiliated hospitals are regional leaders in cardiac care, women's and children's services, cancer care, orthopedics and advanced patient safety technology.

For more information about the not-for-profit Sutter Health network, please visit
www.SutterHealth.org | www.Facebook.com/SutterHealth | www.YouTube.com/SutterHealth | http://twitter.com/sutterhealth

SOURCE Sutter Health