Western Baptist’s cardiac surgery recognized

                      in top 20 percent of national project

           WesternBaptist Hospital’s cardiac surgery has earned a national quality improvement award, and four other clinical areas have been recognized for high quality care.

            The recognition came from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in the Premier healthcare alliance value-based purchasing project that rewards hospitals for delivering high quality care.

            The hospital received the Top Improvement award in coronary artery bypass graft surgery. Of about 250 hospitals nationwide participating in the project, 110 were eligible for this award. The top 20 percent were recognized with the Top Improvement award for the greatest quality improvements.

            Western Baptist also received an Attainment Performance award in coronary artery bypass graft surgery, as well as in the clinical areas of acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, hip and knee replacement and pneumonia. Attainment awards are given to the top 50 percent of participating hospitals that attain or exceed median level performance.

            “Providing outstanding patient care is our primary mission,” said CEO and President Larry Barton. “Our successes in this project are a testament to our ongoing efforts to improve the quality of care we offer our patients. Many of these awards are based on numbers, but we don’t forget that there are faces behind those numbers. What this really means is improved care for our patients.”

            The awards are based on fourth-year results from the Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration (HQID) project.

“The successes of the hospitals – small and large, urban and rural, teaching and non-teaching – in the HQID project have led to its consideration as the basis for key national health reforms,” said Susan Devore, Premier president and CEO. “As the proposal of a national value-based purchasing program becomes a reality, hospitals participating in HQID will have six years experience with such a model.”

The HQID is the first national project of its kind, designed to determine if economic incentives to hospitals are effective at improving the quality of inpatient care. From each participant, Premier collects a set of more than 30 evidence-based clinical quality measures developed by government and private organizations.      

Western Baptist is a regional medical referral center, serving about 200,000 patients a year from four states. Named in Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals, it has western Kentucky’s only nationally-accredited chest pain center and da Vinci robot.