Four Network Medical Centers Achieve Top Performance in Quality/Cost Collaborative

As policymakers struggle to find solutions that improve healthcare quality and control spending, four Kettering Health Network medical centers (Kettering, Grandview, Southview and Sycamore) are showing that higher quality care can lead to a lower cost of care through its participation in a national hospital improvement collaborative.

All four hospitals placed among the nation’s top 32 performers in the Premier Inc. healthcare alliance QUEST: High Performing Hospitals. A voluntary, three-year project made up of 157 not-for-profit hospitals across 31 states, QUEST includes urban/rural, large/small and teaching/non-teaching facilities.

All four KHN hospitals in the study were among the top 10 for best risk-adjusted mortality rates, with Grandview/Southview being the second-best performer in the entire study. Both Kettering and Sycamore medical centers were in the top 10 percent in use of best practice procedures during 2008. Sycamore led the way in efficient delivery of care with a cost per discharge of $4310, which was $1430 lower than the average hospital in its group. All findings were risk adjusted to make a fair comparison based on the acuity level of each hospital’s patients.

Kettering Health Network’s fifth acute care facility, Greene Memorial Hospital, was not affiliated with KHN when the project started. In order to provide an accurate data sample from a fixed control group over the three years of the project, Premier-QUEST has limited participation to those hospitals enrolled at the start of the project.

“As participants in QUEST, we are taking the next steps to achieve the reliable delivery of the best clinical, financial and satisfaction outcomes,” said Fred Manchur, president of Kettering Health Network. “Through collaboration, data transparency and best practice sharing, participants will further secure their position as industry leaders, creating a competitive advantage. Our patients are benefitting tremendously as we demonstrate top performance in care provision standards and risk-adjusted mortality.”

Since setting the three-year goals at the baseline, QUEST hospitals have saved an estimated total of 8,043 lives and $577 million in one year, according to first-year results. Of the approximately 2.3 million patients treated annually in hospitals, 24,818 received treatments that met the highest-quality patient care standards when compared to baseline performance at the outset of the project.

“These results highlight what can be achieved when hospitals set high goals and focus on continuous improvement,” said Susan DeVore, Premier president and CEO. “QUEST hospitals are outpacing the performance of others, proving that when hospitals work together in a collaborative forum, they bring the depth of their shared knowledge to the table. Such collaboration helps participants to reliably deliver the most efficient, effective and caring hospital experience for each and every patient, every single time.”

According to an analysis of these year one results, if all hospitals not participating in QUEST were to achieve the improvements found among the participants, they could save an estimated 52,760 lives. “Imagine if the remaining 97 percent of U.S. hospitals not participating in QUEST could replicate these results – cost reductions and quality improvements would be significant,” DeVore said.

Cost of care was reduced by an average of $343 per patient and the delivery of every recommended patient care measure increased by 8.74 percentage points to deliver perfect care an average of 86.3 percent of the time. At the same time, QUEST hospitals achieved a 14 percent reduction in observed mortality when compared to what was expected.

About QUEST
Developed in partnership with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, QUEST is designed to springboard hospitals to new levels of performance and inform public policies with tangible results. To accomplish this, QUEST benchmarked participating facilities using data from Premier’s clinical database to determine the “baseline” level of performance in cost, mortality and evidence-based care delivery. Hospitals were then challenged to overcome the main factors that lead to deaths, errors and excessive costs, and measure themselves against one another to achieve top performance. QUEST also 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.

About Premier Inc., 2006 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Recipient
The Premier healthcare alliance is more than 2,200 U.S. hospitals and 63,000-plus other healthcare sites working together to improve healthcare quality and affordability. Owned by not-for-profit hospitals, 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 works with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the United Kingdom's National Health Service North West to improve hospital performance. Headquartered in Charlotte, Premier also has offices in San Diego, Philadelphia and Washington. Follow Premier on Twitter.

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