[April 16, 2012]

Adventist Health System Joins National Programs Focused on Preventing Harm, Reducing Costs

Adventist Health System has taken steps to improve care for the 4 million people it serves each year by joining a pair of programs focused on enhancing the quality, safety and affordability of America's healthcare.

Nearly 40 Adventist Health System hospitals across several states have chosen to participate in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Partnership for Patients program with Premier, a nationwide healthcare performance improvement alliance. With 540 hospitals participating, Premier is the second largest of 26 Hospital Engagement Networks approved by CMS.

Partnership for Patients will help identify the solutions already working to reduce hospital-acquired conditions (HACs), and share them with providers across the nation. It offers support to physicians, nurses and other clinicians working to keep patients from getting injured or acquiring infections while in the hospital so they can heal without complications.

Specifically, hospitals focus on reducing preventable harm, including preventable readmissions, by 20 percent and preventable HACs by 40 percent by the end of 2013. In doing so, CMS estimates the partnership has the potential to, over the next three years:

• Save 60,000 lives;
• Reduce millions of preventable injuries and complications in patient care; and
• Save as much as $35 billion, including up to $10 billion in savings to Medicare.

The nearly 40 Adventist Health System hospitals have also joined Premier's QUEST^®: High Performing Hospitals collaborative. In QUEST's first three years, 157 hospitals saved 24,820 lives and reduced healthcare spending by almost $4.5 billion. Now the growing number of more than 300 hospitals in QUEST are working together to make data-driven, evidence-based decisions in care delivery. The goal is to improve the patient experience and avoid harm while reducing mortality, cost of care and readmissions.

"Both QUEST and the Partnership for Patients offer significant value and improvement strategies that align with national priorities, federal policies and future reimbursement, which increasingly will tie payment to performance," said Adventist Health System President and CEO Donald L. Jernigan, Ph.D.

Dr. Loran Hauck, chief medical officer of Adventist Health System, added, "Our participation in these programs shows our commitment to providing a safer, more effective care delivery system, and aligns with our focus on continuously improving patient outcomes."

"The Premier alliance has long been instituting unique innovations to identify solutions in areas such as harm avoidance," said Senior Vice President of Premier Performance Partners Wes Champion. "Collaboration is a powerful step for providers to truly challenge their performance and implement change that improves their way to better outcomes and ultimately a healthier community."

QUEST hospitals set national care standards by transparently analyzing and comparing performance to identify and implement opportunities for improvement. They also leverage comprehensive data from Premier's clinical comparative database - the nation's largest, with one in four hospital admissions.

Adventist Health System hospitals use Premier's QualityAdvisor™ application to integrate and compare quality, safety and financial data to identify improvement opportunities, understand drivers for variation and monitor quality of care.

In addition, more than 350 hospital members of PACT™ (Premier's Partnership for Care Transformation), including 13 Adventist Health System hospitals in Florida and Illinois, are working together to develop and prepare for future care delivery models.

Adventist Health System has been a Premier member for more than 15 years and leverages the alliance's national purchasing network to identify savings opportunities, which helped its hospitals, alternate sites and affiliate members save nearly $32 million last year.

About Adventist Health System

Adventist Health System is a not-for-profit healthcare organization that emphasizes Christ at the center of care. Founded in 1973, Adventist Health System has grown to become the largest not-for-profit Protestant healthcare provider in the nation. Today Adventist Health System supports 43 campuses and employs 55,000 people. Adventist Health System hospitals are composed of 7,700-plus licensed beds, providing care for 4 million patients each year in inpatient, outpatient and emergency room visits. Adventist Health System's flagship, Florida Hospital, is one of the largest healthcare providers in America and a national leader in cardiac care. Established in 1908, Florida Hospital now includes almost 2,200 beds on eight campuses. http://www.adventisthealthsystem.com.

About the Premier healthcare alliance, Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient

Premier is a performance improvement alliance of more than 2,500 U.S. hospitals and 81,000-plus other healthcare sites using the power of collaboration to lead the transformation to high-quality, cost-effective care. Owned by hospitals, health systems and other providers, 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 has worked with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the United Kingdom's National Health Service North West to improve hospital performance. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Premier also has an office in Washington. https://premierinc.com. Stay connected with Premier on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

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