| Bridges
to Excellence
Francois
de Brantes
Phone:
203-270-2906
francois.debrantes@bridgestoexcellence.org
The
American Health Care Quality Association and Bridges To Excellence
Team-up To Recognize Physician Practice Excellence
Comprehensive
toolkit helps QIOs assess physician practice eligibility for
financial rewards and public recognition.
Washington ,
DC – The
American Health Quality Association (AHQA) and Bridges to Excellence
(BTE) released today a set of surveys and other tools that Quality Improvement
Organizations (QIOs) can use to assess physician practices as they re-engineer
their systems of care. Physician practices determined to meet the specific
criteria will be eligible for financial rewards and public recognition.
The toolkit enables QIOs to assess eligible practices using a common
set of metrics. The assessment will determine the extent to which each
practice meets certain standards related to the adoption and use of health
IT and care management programs, active participation in clinical performance
measurement, and tracking of patients over time. Practices that achieve
a certain performance threshold will be reported to BTE as meeting criteria
of its Physician Office Link program and can become eligible to receive
financial rewards and public recognition.
“Employers and health plans across the country are adopting BTE’s
programs to fuel their pay-for-performance efforts. They are looking
for physicians and physician practices that can demonstrate that they
have reengineered the way they practice medicine in a way that is consistent
with the Institute of Medicine ’s six aims for better care,” said
Francois de Brantes, National Coordinator for BTE. “Physicians
and physician practices have been looking for a business case to reengineer
and our program does that. The QIOs provide an invaluable public service
by giving hands-on help to these practices and making sure that they
are delivering good quality care. This toolkit will enable all QIOs to
participate in this important effort.”
“QIOs have been helping practices across the country to adopt
and use health IT and care management processes as part of their contract
with Medicare,” said David Schulke, Executive Vice President of
AHQA. “This partnership with BTE provides an opportunity to engage
practices in a new way and help them win financially, in addition to
serving patients better.”
In August, President Bush signed an Executive Order asking all branches
of the federal government to use their purchasing power and other means
to help promote the adoption of health IT, the public release of performance
measures, and the creation of incentives to reward providers for better
performance. With the release of this toolkit, QIOs can now contribute
to progress in all four areas. Since 1999, they have been the only nationally
coordinated infrastructure helping physician practices and other providers
improve the quality and safety of their care.
About
BTE
The
Bridges to Excellence coalition is a not-for-profit organization
created to encourage significant leaps in the quality of care by
recognizing and rewarding health care providers who demonstrate that
they deliver safe, timely, effective, efficient and patient-centered
care. Bridges to Excellence partners include the National Business
Coalition on Health, the National Committee for Quality Assurance,
Healthgrades, The LeapFrog Group and Michael Pine and Associates.
Participants include large employers and health plans. The organizations
are united in their shared goal of improving health care quality
through measurement, reporting, rewards and education. Additional
information is available at www.bridgestoexcellence.org.
About
AHQA
AHQA
is dedicated to improving the safety and effectiveness of health
care. AHQA represents the national network of QIOs that work with
hospitals, medical practices, long-term care facilities, home health
agencies, health plans, pharmacists, and employers to encourage the
spread of best clinical practices and improve systems of care delivery.
QIOs are working in all 50 states, the District of Columbia , and
two U.S. territories. Find your local QIO at: www.ahqa.org
Editor’s
Note: The toolkit is available on both the AHQA and BTE websites: www.ahqa.org and www.bridgestoexcellence.org. |
