Hospital Core Measures

Our committed healthcare workers in Georgia save lives every day.  We have rich resources to support our endeavors.  In order to measure the quality of our hospitals, we needed specific performance measures that could be quantified and clearly measured.  We needed to incorporate evidence-based medicine to ensure that every patient gets the right care at the right time.  The Core Measures follow a set of national priorities to achieve this.  We believe that patients in every healthcare institution in Georgia should be treated according to national guidelines to ensure safety, quality, equity, and efficiency in their treatment.  We want to guarantee that every patient who comes into a Georgia hospital receives the very best care.

Core Measures were selected on a national scale to address specific areas of medical care.  Core Measures are evidence-based standards of care which have been shown to produce improved clinical outcomes for patients. 

Currently, there are 26 Core Measures in four areas:  

• Heart Failure
• AMI
• Pneumonia
• Surgical Infection Prevention. 

These are not “report card” areas.  These are ways to measure the care we provide that we can use to improve care for everyone.  These measurements require a large amount of time and attention; they are basically an “unfunded mandate,” but we are completely committed to the idea of providing the best care to every patient.

Of course, Core Measures only tell part of the story.  They represent a quantifiable method of showing that a hospital is following standards of care in a certain number of areas.  Every hospital in Georgia is committed to providing the best care to every patient in every area of care.

For more information regarding PHA please email us at: pha@gha.org

PHA - GHA's Moving Georgia to the Top Ten

Moving Georgia to the Top Ten by 2010 is an initiative of
the Georgia Hospital Board of Trustees which started in 2008.

Background: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) rank the states on the quality of care on the Appropriate Care Measures (ACM).  The Appropriate Care Measures consist of five AMI indicators, two heart failure indicators, and one pneumonia indicator. By improving Appropriate Care Measures, we can take steps to assure every patient receives the "Right Care at the Right Time."  

The Top Ten Measure included:

• AMI 1 – Aspirin on arrival
• AMI 2 – Aspirin at discharge
• AMI 3 – ACE/ARB inhibitor for left ventricular systolic dysfunction
• AMI 5 – Beta-blocker within 24 hour after arrival
• HF 2 –   Assessment of left ventricular function
• HF 3 –   ACE/ARB for left ventricular dysfunction
• PN 2 –   Presence or absence of pneumococcal vaccination
• PN 5c – Timing of initial antibiotic therapy within 6 hours

 

Current Situation:  Georgia is in the bottom quartile nationally and needs to move to the top ten. As part of the initiative, Georgia hopsitals with an ACM rate of 91% or better are recognized on the "Right Care Every Time" Honor Roll (Click on the image below for a full-size copy).

Future:  By the end of 2010, we plan to have Georgia in the Top Ten – watch the progress as Georgia moves forward!

Educational efforts are under way for the Board members, Administration, Physicians, and hospital staff. 

• Board Certification Program - Not available at this time

Links to Related Initiatives:

-Best Practices Power Hour

PHA Best Practices

Best Practices identifies systems that deliver superior performance in terms of using evidence-based medicine to achieve improved clinical results

The Best Practice subcommittee is composed of MDs, nurses, pharmacists, risk managers, QI/PI staff. The sub-committee will review scientific evidence-based best practices and other study results, identify successful strategies and promote the consideration of accepted evidence-based clinical practices where appropriate. Additionally, the sub-committee will identify additional topics or self-assessments for high volume patient safety improvement opportunities. There is a recommendation that a validation group made up of experts in the field of evidence-based quality measures review the work of the Best Practices Sub-committee and ensure the validity of the measures. Aggregate information/data will be shared with participating hospitals and providers in order to assist them in redesigning health care delivery practices and procedures, and for internal patient safety initiatives. The sub-committee will also make recommendations to PHA's Report TAG on methodology for determining best performer hospitals for the PHA public reports.

• Best Practice Clinical Process Team(s) is composed of participating hospital physician specialists in the areas of clinical interest identified by the Best Practices Sub-committee. The teams will identify the specific measures from accepted evidence-based clinical practices and others as appropriate to be submitted to the PHA Peer Review Panel.

Objective: Improve clinical outcomes for healthcare consumers in Georgia by identifying best practices and encouraging their application while reducing variation and preventing medical errors.

Approach: Measure clinical delivery processes and outcomes for the top DRGs/CPTs based on criteria to include high volume, costs, and/or risk. As stated before, to identify systems that deliver superior performance in terms of using evidence-based medicine to achieve improved clinical results (“best practices”).

 

Best Practices - Meeting Information

• Upcoming Meetings - None at this time
• Meeting Registration Forms - To register for an upcoming meeting, please click the link. It will take you to the meetings page. meetings are listed by date.

Links to Related Initiatives:

• 

For more information on the Best Practices Sub-Committee please email us at: pha@gha.org

Best Practices Power Hours

Click here to access meeting materials for upcoming meetings.

Click on a month to go directly to that month.

Jan	Feb	Mar	April	May	June	July	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec

If you wish to order a tape, please click here to send an email.

2010	Topic	Speaker(s)	Materials
January
February	Specifications Update	Lynne Hall, RN, BSN	Attachment
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

Registration is available online for future meetings at the following link: http://www.gha.org/pha/meetings/Calendar/.

Using the GHA Calendar, locate this meeting and go to Click here to register for this event. You will need your GHA User ID and Password to access the registration page. If you do not have this information, you may contact Pamela Jackson at pdjackson@gha.org for assistance.

Core Measure Toolkit

• This site is under construction. Please check back.

Physician Quality Resources