Outcomes reporting: so much more than just marketing to hospitals
Posted by Jennifer Clement on Thu, Oct 27, 2011
As clinicians with experience in nursing homes across the country, we recognize that when it comes to quality improvement programs, many providers still struggle with outcomes management.
Together with customers we determined which measures would help facilities become acquainted with outcomes that can be used to evaluate the success of existing processes and provide specific data to analyze why intended results may not have been achieved. Managing these outcomes is valuable at both the facility and corporate levels – regulations, reimbursement, compliance, customer satisfaction, reputation are all built around basic measures to make care safer, reduce complications of care, and increase efficiencies. CMS also recognizes that many times outcomes are not monitored/analyzed consistently or correctly - that’s why they are proposing QAPI to enforce better QI tracking and management.
As a provider, you need to know what’s right in your facilities before you can market to potential partners. For example, residents with pressure ulcers or high fall risk are much more likely to be readmitted to the hospital with complications in less than 30 days. In addition to measures that show you high risk diagnoses and unplanned hospital readmissions, you also need measures that help to reduce the risk of complications that often times result in re-hospitalization.
We appreciate how important ACO and public reporting of hospital readmission measures are, but outcomes reporting is so much more than that. With outcomes reporting, you are empowered to show that the quality of services you provide consistently produces cost-effective high quality care - to your physicians, your staff for continuous improvement, and the families who trust you to care for loved ones.
Facts are friends, and with outcomes reports you have friendly data to manage your reputation. American HealthTech officially released outcomes reporting mid September of 2011.