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Missouri IDN sets sites on top cardiovascular performance

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Heartland Health, an integrated health delivery system, includes a medical center, physician practices, foundation and a health plan. Heartland seeks to improve the health of area individuals and communities and to provide the right care, at the right time, in the right place, at the right cost with outcomes second to none. Commitment to this mission has enabled Heartland Health to become the healthcare leader in a 21-county area of northwest Missouri, northeast Kansas and southeast Nebraska. For more information, go to www.heartland-health.com.

Situation:

In healthcare, clinical quality and financial performance are inseparable. Efficiency without quality is unthinkable. Quality without efficiency is unsustainable. With that in mind, in 2007 Heartland Health in St. Joseph, MO, set out on a three-year journey to ensure that its cardiovascular services were not only top decile from a quality and safety perspective but also delivered cost effectively.

Solution:

Heartland Health engaged the services of experts from Premier Consulting SolutionsTM (PCS) and other Premier healthcare alliance units in a cardiovascular services’ transformation project to save $4.4 million while looking closely at all processes to improve care while eliminating eliminate waste and inefficiencies.

Result:

With savings of more than $3.3 million, Heartland is well on its way to meeting its $4.4 million goal as well as the overarching goal of streamlining every single process through a painstaking look at throughput and length of stay.

"When we got started there were no economic issues. When the economic downturn hit, we didn’t have to rethink anything. It just gave us more encouragement that we’re doing the right thing. We must be better stewards of our resources especially since we’re a sole provider. It’s one thing to provide quality care. It another to provide quality care that’s cost effective and cost efficient so patients can afford it."

Lynette Wheeler, Leader
Cardiac Vascular and Pulmonary Service
Heartland Health

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