Decatur Memorial Hospital (DMH) has been identified as a "High-Performer" for providing some of the highest quality of care in the nation for Medicare hospital patients treated for pneumonia, heart failure and heart attacks from July 2003 to June 2004.
Health Services Advisory Group Inc. (HSAG), the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) of Arizona, made the determination through a national study funded by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Initiated in October 2003, the study is titled "Identification and Synthesis of Components Essential to Achieving "High Performer Status in Various Provider Types." The ultimate objective of the study is to identify "High Performer" hospitals and analyze their distinguishing characteristics to help the QIO Program, which consists of a national network of 38 QIOs responsible for each U.S. state, two U.S. Territories and the District of Columbia, transform and accelerate health care quality improvement.
As a result of DMH’s celebrate high-performer status, Michael Zia, M.D., DMH vice president of Medical Affairs and Quality, has been invited to join HSAG at the fifth annual CMS QualityNet Conference-QualityNet 2005 to be held in Hunt Valley, Md., Sept. 12-16.
"DMH and its medical staff have worked very hard utilizing our Six Sigma improvement tools to create exceptional care," Dr. Zia said. "We are pleased to be recognized for our efforts and are continuing to expand our focus on perfecting processes."
The QualityNet 2005 conference will bring together a community of health care professionals dedicated to reviewing and improving utilization and quality of U.S. health care for people on Medicare. The event will include over seventy independent companies and their government program executives, project managers and support staff. This year’s conference will focus on the "Quest for Quality" for CMS and the QIO community.
In attending the annual conference, Dr. Zia will join HSAG in a panel presentation designed to help CMS and QIO officials learn more about DMH’s organizational and operational characteristics, practices and attributes that distinguish their quality management program from non-high performers. Understanding these distinguishing high-performer factors will be a great step forward for QIOs and other health care quality experts in designing interventions to help other hospitals improve care for patients with pneumonia, heart failure and heart attacks.
"We are honored to have DMH join us at this important quality improvement conference," said Andrea Silvey, Ph.D., High-Performers project director. "Through this special study we have identified DMH as one of the nation’s best health care providers for patients with pneumonia, heart failure and heart attacks. Their willingness to share insights, barriers and lessons learned will be extremely valuable for the QIO community, and ultimately for the 40 million people on Medicare across the nation," Dr. Silvey said.
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