Clinical quality improvement in a multihospital system: the voluntary hospitals of America/Pennsylvania experience.
Sharing of patient outcome data among hospitals hastened the evolution of continuous quality improvement at Voluntary Hospitals of American/Pennsylvania (VHA/PA) to a focus on learning from the best: clinical benchmarking. Analysis of VHA/PA MedisGroups comparative outcome data showed significant variation. In the first study, variations from 3 to 25% normal appendectomy rates were noted. A second study on primary and secondary cesarean section rates again showed variation in outcomes. A study of the benchmark hospitals showed characteristics, specific to those institutions, that resulted in excellent outcomes. To quantify best processes, VHA/PA has embarked on a clinical benchmarking project with the assistance of MediQual Systems, Inc.
Voluntary Hospitals of America/Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh 15220.
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Banaszak
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001062:Appendectomy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002585:Cesarean Section / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006788:Hospitals, Voluntary / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009096:Multi-Institutional Systems / Q000592:standards*; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010414:Pennsylvania; D010865:Pilot Projects; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011247:Pregnancy; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D014481:United States