HQA History | HQA Questions and Answers | HQA Home
 Beginning April 1, 2005, the partnership known as the Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA) will post hospital quality data on CMS' public website,www.Medicare.gov. The release includes scores on a variety of National Quality Improvement Goals of all JCAHO participating organizations and makes comparison with both national and local organizations to include Providence Health System in Alaska.
We report on three National Quality Improvement Goals: Heart Attack Care, Heart Failure Care, and Pneumonia Care. The data on the CMS public Web site is submitted quarterly by our staff, however it is 12 months old and does not reflect current performance. The data is not a reflection of any one provider's care or any one physician or specialty in the community.
There are multiple reporting sources of performance grading agencies like the quality data on CMS' public site that includes JCAHO reporting, Health Grades and Health Connect. Patient safety and quality improvement measures are a number one priority at Providence. Each year, we identify areas for improvement and set goals beyond national and state requirements to ensure that our care exemplifies the best.
Currently, there are seven patient goals being monitored in 2005. Providence has a number of quality initiatives in order to maximize our success in patient safety initiatives. For example; Clinical quality improvement teams, IHI 100K Lives initiatives, Patient Safety goals, Heart of Providence, and Press Ganey Patient Satisfaction tools.
Local hospitals have partnered on quality of patient care and have agreed not to compete on the issue of quality.
For more information on quality at Providence Health System in Alaska, contact Betty Gwaltney at (907) 261-4957.
|
