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CONTACT:
Alven Weil
Premier Inc.
704.733.5797

Hospitals participating in Premier healthcare alliance's QUEST project share achieved successes in harm avoidance, surviving sepsis

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (July 23, 2009) – Hospitals participating in the Premier healthcare alliance's QUEST: High Performing Hospitals project have achieved successes in the reliable delivery of clinical and financial outcomes to improve quality and patient safety while reducing costs.

Participants shared best practices and lessons learned related to key objectives within QUEST, such as harm avoidance, surviving sepsis and patient-centered care at the QUEST National Meeting, which took place at Premier's 2009 Annual Breakthroughs Conference and Exhibition in Anaheim, Calif.

QUEST is a voluntary, three-year project with 166 not-for-profit hospitals across 31 states designed to springboard hospitals to new levels of performance. Using benchmarked data from Premier's clinical database, Premier and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) identified the main factors that lead to deaths, errors and excessive costs. With this information, hospitals are able to share best practices and systematically initiate efforts proven to dramatically improve quality and patient outcomes. QUEST is also serving as a testing ground to help shape healthcare reimbursement policies that reward quality.

"QUEST is truly a collaborative project, and the sharing of accomplishments and best practices among participants is an integral part of its success," said Jan Mathews, RN, director of Clinical Performance Improvement at Gaston Memorial Hospital in Gastonia, N.C. "As a part of QUEST, we have achieved improvements in the quality of care we offer our patients, and we're happy to share our lessons learned to the benefit of the entire group."

"QUEST hospitals are engaged in developing and testing performance measures that will help guide future models of quality measurement and reimbursement," said Carolyn C. Scott, RN, M.Ed, MHA, Premier vice president, Performance Improvement and Quality. "These hospitals are ahead of the curve related to the healthcare reform changes that are clearly coming in the reimbursement landscape."

Speakers and panelists included:

Brian Saavedra, MD, ED, medical director, Daughters of Charity - O'Connor Hospital in San Jose, Calif.;
Candace Jennings, FACHE, CEO, Washington County Operations, Mountain States Health Alliance in Johnson City, Tenn.;
Carolyn C. Scott, RN, M.Ed, MHA, Premier vice president, Performance Improvement and Quality;
Craig Deao, MHA, Research and Development leader for Studer Group;
David E. Seidler, MD, medical director and chief, Charleston Area Medical Center in Charleston, W. Va.;
Georges Feghali, MD, senior vice president of Quality, CMO, COO, at TriHealth in Cincinnati;
Glenn Crotty, Jr., MD, FACP, executive vice president, COO, Charleston Area Medical Center in Charleston, W. Va.;
Jan Fitzgerald, MS, RN, CPHQ, director Quality and Medical Management, Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Mass.;
Jan Mathews, RN, MPHA, CPHQ, NEC, BC, at Gaston Memorial Hospital in Gastonia, N.C.;
Richard A. Bankowitz, MD, MBA, FACP, vice president and medical director, Premier Healthcare Informatics;
Sean Townsend, MD, associate director, Medical Intensive Care Unit, Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, R.I.; and
Tom Tull, senior director, Guest Services, Mountain States Health Alliance in Johnson City, Tenn.

QUEST's three-year performance improvement targets are to:

Deliver the most reliable and effective care – Deliver every recommended evidence-based care measure for each patient.
Safely reduce the cost of care – Reduce inpatient costs below the midpoint among participating hospitals.
Save lives – Achieve a substantial reduction in the expected mortality rate.
Improve patient safety – Prevent incidents of harm in more than 20 categories, including healthcare-acquired infections (HAIs) and birth injuries.
Increase satisfaction – Dramatically improve the patient care experience.

QUEST benefits from an Advisory Panel of experts from 20 of the country's top healthcare organizations, such as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, National Quality Forum, and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Premier recently expanded participation in the QUEST project, adding more than 30 hospitals, and will offer additional opportunities to enroll in the near future. All participants will be held to the same performance improvement targets as the original members across the five clinical areas.

About the Premier healthcare alliance, Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient
Premier is a performance improvement alliance of more than 2,500 U.S. hospitals and 80,000-plus other healthcare sites using the power of collaboration to lead the transformation to high quality, cost-effective care. Owned by hospitals, health systems and other providers, Premier maintains the nation's most comprehensive repository of clinical, financial and outcomes information and operates a leading healthcare purchasing network. A world leader in helping deliver measurable improvements in care, Premier has worked with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the United Kingdom's National Health Service North West to improve hospital performance. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Premier also has an office in Washington. https://premierinc.com. Stay connected with Premier on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.