News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Alven Weil
Premier Inc.
704.733.5797
Premier healthcare alliance experts to lead discussions on healthcare pay-for-performance, QUEST project
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (September 4, 2007) – Leaders from the Premier healthcare alliance will speak at conferences around the country in September, sharing insights regarding QUEST, a comprehensive project recently launched by Premier to improve patient safety and quality in the nation’s hospitals while safely reducing healthcare costs.
Premier experts will also discuss pay-for-performance (P4P) and patient safety based on Premier’s Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration (HQID) pay-for-performance project with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
Premier President and CEO Richard A. Norling will be a featured speaker at the 2007 Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association Distinctively Blue Conference on September 17 in Orlando, FL. Norling will discuss both the HQID and QUEST projects, as well as Premier’s role in accelerating the national agenda related to quality, safety and reduction of harm.
Premier Regional Vice President Chuck Hagen will discuss the HQID project at the National Association for Healthcare Quality (NAHQ) 32nd Annual Educational Conference on September 12 in Boston, MA. The HQID is the first national 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. Premier recently launched “QUEST: High Performing Hospitals” based on many of the same principles used in the HQID project. The goal of QUEST, a three-year program, is to improve patient safety and quality in the nation’s hospitals while safely reducing healthcare costs. QUEST participating hospitals will report data to Premier on a set of clearly defined performance measures encompassing aspects of quality, efficiency, safety and patient satisfaction. Premier will analyze the data, facilitate sharing of best practices, and provide incentives for top-performing hospitals.
About Premier, 2006 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient
Serving 1,700 hospitals and more than 47,000 other healthcare sites, Premier
Inc. is the largest healthcare alliance in the United States dedicated to
improving patient outcomes while safely reducing the cost of care. Owned by not-for-profit hospitals, Premier operates one of the nation's largest healthcare purchasing networks and the most comprehensive repository of hospital clinical and financial information. Premier Insurance Management Services, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary, operates one of the largest policy-holder owned, hospital professional liability risk-retention groups in healthcare.
Headquartered in San Diego, Premier has offices in Charlotte, N.C.,
Philadelphia, and Washington. For more information, visit
www.premierinc.com.