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CONTACT:
Alven Weil
Premier Inc.
704.733.5797

Leading healthcare organizations to serve as advisors for comprehensive program to improve hospital quality, reduce costs

Advisory Panel for Premier healthcare alliance QUEST program announced at IHI Forum

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (December 19, 2007) — More than 20 of the nation’s leading healthcare organizations will serve as advisors to a comprehensive program to improve patient safety and quality in the nation’s hospitals while safely reducing healthcare costs.

The Premier healthcare alliance has announced the Advisory Panel for its “QUEST: High Performing Hospitals” program. The QUEST Advisory Panel will provide external guidance and direction to the project. Premier hosted the first meeting of the Advisory Panel on December 11, 2007.

Launched in October 2007, QUEST is a landmark three-year program through which more than 100 participating hospitals will report data on a set of clearly defined performance measures encompassing aspects of quality, efficiency, safety and the patient experience. Premier will analyze the data, facilitate sharing of best practices, and provide incentives for top-performing hospitals.

Members of the QUEST Advisory Panel include:

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) - Carolyn Clancy, MD, director;
Alliance for Nursing Informatics, University of Minnesota - Connie White Delaney, PhD, RN, dean and professor, School of Nursing;
American Board of Internal Medicine - Christine K. Cassel, MD, president and CEO;
American College of Surgeons - Cliford Ko, MD, FACS, director, Division of Research and Optimal Patient Care;
American Health Information Management Association - Linda Kloss, RHIA, CEO;
American Hospital Association - Carmella Coyle, senior vice president for Policy;
American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM) - Doug Borg, president-elect;
Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) - Allan Korn, MD, senior vice president and chief medical officer;
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) - Denise M. Cardo, MD, director, Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion;
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) - Thomas B. Valuck, MD, MHSA, JD, medical officer and senior adviser;
Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) - Donald Goldmann, MD, senior vice president;
John D. Stoeckle Center for Primary Care Innovation, Massachusetts General Hospital - Susan Edgman-Levitan, PA, executive director;
National Business Coalition on Health - Andrew Webber, president and CEO;
National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF) - Diane Pinakiewicz, MBA, president;
National Quality Forum - Janet Corrigan, PhD, MBA, president and CEO;
Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology - David Hunt, MD, medial officer; Rand Corporation - Robert Brook, MD, vice president;
The Commonwealth Fund - Stephen C. Schoenbaumn, MD, executive vice president;
The Joint Commission - Jerod M. Loeb, PhD, vice president for Research and Performance Measurement.

Premier is currently in discussions with other leading organizations regarding their addition to the Advisory Panel.

“We are pleased to have such a distinguished group of experts representing the full range of interests within the healthcare system,” said Rick Norling, Premier president and CEO. “The goal of the QUEST Advisory Panel is to help guide and inform the development and execution of the QUEST program by bringing diverse perspectives to our work, and we are grateful for the commitment of these healthcare leaders. The Advisory Panel is also a demonstration of our commitment to transparency.”

QUEST will utilize many of the same collaborative, rapid improvement practices employed in the Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration (HQID) project, a highly successful pay-for-performance initiative overseen by Premier and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. QUEST will also build on the momentum of hospitals focused on harm reduction in IHI’s 5 Million Lives campaign.

“QUEST seeks to develop the next generation of quality, safety and efficiency metrics with a consistency and standardization that does not exist today,” said Stephanie Alexander, Premier senior vice president of Healthcare Informatics. “With direction and assistance from the leading healthcare experts on the Advisory Panel, QUEST hospitals will look to achieve these goals and ultimately provide a reliable, high quality healthcare experience to their patients.”

There are five measurement areas associated with QUEST:

Mortality Ratio, which will be risk-adjusted, to attain the goal of eliminating all avoidable deaths;
Evidence-based Care, which will measure the percentage of patients receiving "perfect care” – using nationally recognized evidence-based quality measures;
Efficiency, which will measure total inpatient cost per case mix adjusted discharge, including all of the costs associated with each episode of acute care;
Patient Experience, which will utilize the CMS Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) patient satisfaction measures. In addition to the goal of improving the patient experience, the program will also study how patient satisfaction can relate to cost, quality and safety; and,
Harm Avoidance measures - the prevention of such things as healthcare associated infections and adverse drug events - will be developed over time by the program. Many measures exist today in this area. QUEST hospitals will participate in the selection of harm measures that have the greatest impact for use in QUEST.

The initial phase of the program will focus on mortality, evidence-based care and efficiency, with harm avoidance and patient experience the focus in year two.

About Premier Inc., 2006 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient
The Premier healthcare alliance is more than 2,300 U.S. hospitals and 64,000-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, N.C., Premier also has offices in San Diego, Philadelphia and Washington. Follow Premier on Twitter.