News
P4P Across The Pond
England’s largest strategic health authority selects Premier healthcare alliance, plans to implement pay-for-performance project as a model for improving patient care
NHS North West to execute England’s first healthcare P4P program with groundbreaking Premier, CMS project as a guideline
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (December 17, 2007) – NHS North West, England’s largest strategic health authority, is planning to institute the country’s first hospital-based pay-for-performance (P4P) effort, called “Advancing Quality,” using a groundbreaking U.S. project as a guideline.
NHS North West has selected the Premier healthcare alliance, utilizing Premier’s Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration (HQID) P4P project with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as a model for improving patient care in the North West region of England.
Mike Farrar, Chief Executive of NHS North West, said: “We already strive to provide top quality care for our patients, but we want it to get better.
“We have carried out an extensive search to identify the most effective health services on offer around the globe and we have teamed up with a world leader that has already delivered dramatic results in the US. Premier Inc. has a vast amount of experience in the US ‘not-for-profit’ sector and leads the field in the development of analytical tools. It also has a proven track record in helping healthcare providers deliver the improvements in that care.”
The HQID is the first national demonstration project of its kind, designed to determine if economic incentives to hospitals are effective at improving the quality of inpatient care. As part of the project, more than 250 hospitals submit clinical quality data to Premier through the Perspective™ data warehouse. CMS, which approved a three-year extension of the project in February, then uses the data to identify and reward top performers in five clinical areas.
“NHS North West is committed to working with hospitals to improve clinical quality and patient outcomes while safely reducing costs,” said Richard Norling, president and chief executive officer of Premier Inc. “The HQID project is having a positive impact on the quality of care in our nation’s hospitals and on the lives of patients and their families, and we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to assist NHS North West in achieving similar results in the U.K.”
According to results from the first two years of the project, participating hospitals have raised overall quality by 11.8 percent in two years, based on their delivery of 30 nationally standardized and widely accepted care measures to patients in five clinical areas.
Improvements in quality of care saved an estimated 1,284 heart attack patients, according to an analysis of mortality rates at hospitals participating in the HQID project. Patients also received approximately 150,000 additional recommended evidence-based clinical quality measures, such as smoking cessation counseling, discharge instructions and pneumococcal vaccination.
Advancing Quality will be implemented in more than 30 hospitals and other care sites in the North West region.
About NHS North West
NHS North West covers the largest geographical area of any of England’s 10
strategic health authorities. It serves a population of more than 7 million
people, living in both inner city and rural areas. Please visit
http://www.northwest.nhs.uk/about_us/ for more information.
About Premier Inc., 2006 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient
The Premier healthcare alliance is more
than 2,100 U.S. hospitals and 58,000-plus other healthcare sites working
together to improve healthcare quality and affordability. 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. Premier has offices
in San Diego, Charlotte, N.C., Philadelphia and Washington. Follow Premier on
Twitter.
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26th November, 2007
NHS in the North West Announces Drive for World Class Quality Care
The NHS in the North West is launching a revolutionary programme aimed at improving patient care, saving lives and reducing costs – the first of its kind for hospitals in the UK.
Advancing Quality will initially focus on improving the quality of care in five areas of healthcare important to the NHS across the North West: heart attacks, pneumonia, heart failure, hip and knee replacement and heart-by-pass operations.
It is being trialled in seven areas across the region and with the North West Ambulance Service - before being rolled out across the region early in the New Year.
The programme aims to reduce re-admissions and complications and slash the time patients spend in hospital.
Mike Farrar, Chief Executive of NHS North West, said: “We already strive to provide top quality care for our patients, but we want it to get better.
“We have carried out an extensive search to identify the most effective health services on offer around the globe and we have teamed up with a world leader that has already delivered dramatic results in the US.
“Premier Inc. has a vast amount of experience in the US ‘not-for-profit’ sector and lead the field in the development of analytical tools. It also has a proven track record in helping healthcare providers deliver the improvements in that care.
“Advancing Quality will result in patients having a better experience in hospital and ultimately a better quality of life. They will also have more say and influence as their opinions and experiences of the care they received in hospital.
“This scheme will demonstrate it is possible to improve results and save money,” he added.
Advancing Quality will use simple markers – easily understood by medical staff and patients - to measure the quality of the care on offer and hospitals will be rewarded according to the results. A simple example is that antibiotics are given at a particular stage of care.
The PCTs across the NHS have allocated up to £7.1m of their budgets for the first full year to run Advancing Quality. This figure includes more than £5m that will be invested in hospitals that are successful in improving the quality of care for patients. The remainder will be allocated to running the programme, including providing Trusts and PCTs with money to help them roll-out the programme. This figure may rise to £10.6m in future years to allow for us to expand the programme and include focus on more areas of care.
The trial areas in the North West are: Bolton Trust and PCT, Blackpool Trust and PCT along with North Lancashire PCT, Wirral Trust and PCT, Mid-Cheshire Trust along with Central and East Cheshire PCT, Central Manchester Trust and Manchester PCT, Salford Trust and PCT and St Helens and Knowsley Trust along with Halton and St Helens PCT.
Financial incentives will help healthcare providers improve standards and then invest that money into improving facilities and patient care.
The incentive programme is currently being developed with Premier Inc. There are no plans to penalise Trusts for not meeting standards in the Advancing Quality programme.
Advancing Quality will provide a transparent and easy to understand measurement of quality that patients and the public can understand. It will also provide important information to NHS staff and provide assurance that what they think happens to patients does actually happen.
Premier has seen dramatic results in the first two years it has been running the programme in the US, including:
- Saving the lives of nearly 1,300 heart-attack patients
- Providing more than 150,000 additional treatments at the highest possible quality care standard.
- Reducing heart by-pass surgery death rates to as low as 1.6 per cent and reducing the occurrence of associated complications to as low as 3.9 per cent.
- Improving overall quality of patient care by an average of 11.8 per cent.
Eventually it is hoped the programme will produce performance data allowing patients to compare safety, quality and the efficiency of healthcare services at different hospitals. - ends-
For further information about the programme or Premier Inc., please contact:
Dan McMullan T 07970 195 996 Email: dan.mcmullan@communiquepr.co.uk
Helen Barklam T 07976 808 877 Email: helen.barklam@communiquepr.co.uk