Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association Updates Quality and Patient Safety Scorecards

June 21, 2017

Data Show Statewide Hospital Improvement on Five Key Hospital Quality and Patient Safety Metrics

RICHMOND, VA – Virginia’s local hospitals and health systems are dedicated to delivering positive patient outcomes by providing high-quality care to all they serve. Achieving those goals requires commitment, vigilance, and self-assessment to identify opportunities for improvement. To help with that process, the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association (VHHA) maintains Quality & Patient Safety Scorecards – an interactive, online tool that enables users to review data showing hospital-specific performance on key quality, safety, and patient satisfaction measures. The latest batch of data shows a continuing trend of steady improvement by Virginia hospitals on several health care measures in 2016 when reductions in five key areas were achieved. That builds upon 2015 data showing statewide improvement in 13 metric categories measuring performance on reducing readmissions after treatment for certain heart conditions or hip and knee replacements, infection prevention, patient satisfaction, and other measures.

The scorecards have been developed with support from VHHA’s Board of Directors that is comprised of leaders from hospitals and health systems across Virginia. A report card for each local hospital in Virginia is available for review by visitors to www.vhha.com. Each scorecard provides information about health care-associated infections – catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) and central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) – patient safety, hospital readmission rates, mortality data, patient satisfaction, and efficiency of Medicare spending per beneficiary. The report cards chart changes in categorical performance from 2010-2016, and list the data source for each category. For 2016, reductions were recorded on CAUTI, heart attack readmissions, heart failure readmissions, total hip and knee replacement readmissions, and 30-day heart attack mortality rate.

The scorecards are one example of how Virginia’s local hospitals and health systems promote transparency and educate the public in the name of promoting a healthier Virginia. VHHA also provides online Community Health Legislative Dashboards which enable users to review key health and population statistics by region throughout the Commonwealth. The dashboards feature demographic data and statistical health markers corresponding to communities overlapping Virginia’s 100 House of Delegates districts and its 40 state Senate districts. And VHHA maintains an updated PricePoint website that allows visitors to review demographic, quality, and charge information on Virginia hospitals to promote consumer awareness enabling patients to make informed decisions about their health care.

VHHA President and CEO Sean Connaughton said Board-approved efforts to chart hospital performance in key areas, and the fact that improvement is occurring in Virginia hospitals already highly-rated on patient satisfaction measures, underscores hospitals’ commitment to excellence.

“The dedicated people who work in Virginia’s community hospitals and health systems are committed to helping patients heal by providing high-quality care in the hospital setting so patients can transition back to their lives,” said Connaughton. “Accomplishing that requires a laser-like focus on enhancing health care quality and organizational performance as part of the journey to help the Commonwealth become the healthiest state in the nation. Monitoring hospital performance, identifying areas for improvement, and making those metrics publicly available demonstrates the serious commitment Virginia’s hospitals have to enhancing health care quality and safety, and to being transparent about steps being taken to achieve that goal.”

The Quality & Patient Safety Scorecard function is a fixture on VHHA’s website, as are the PricePoint and the Community Health Legislative Dashboard tools. The scorecard tool gathers data from sources including the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Virginia Health Information, and the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey.

About VHHA: The Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association is an alliance of 111 hospitals and 29 health delivery systems that develops and advocates for sound health care policy in the Commonwealth. Its vision is to achieve excellence in both health care and health. Its vision is through the power of collaboration to be recognized as a driving force behind making Virginia the healthiest state in the nation. Connect with VHHA through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and ISupportVirginiaHospitals.com.

Download the press release here.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Julian Walker
Vice President of Communications
(804) 297-3193 office
(804) 304-7402 mobile
jtwalker@vhha.com