American hospitals improved their performance on 25 evidence-based quality
metrics in 2008, according to a report released in January by the Joint
Commission.
In fact, hospitals exceeded 90% compliance on 23 of the commission's 31
measures of heart attack, pneumonia, heart failure, asthma and surgical
care.
The commission, which accredits more than 3,000 hospitals and other health
care organizations, has collected quality data since 2002. This is the
fourth annual public report of results
(www.jointcommission.org/library/annual_report).
"It's not just the average that's getting better," said Joint Commission
President Mark R. Chassin, MD, MPH. "It's important to note how many
hospitals are achieving really high levels of performance. ... Hospitals
have figured out, even with the increasing number of measures they have to
work on, how to get close to consistent excellence on these measures of
quality."
The measures track performance in areas such as giving aspirin and
beta-blockers to heart attack patients upon arrival and discharge, and
giving patients antibiotics before surgery. Hospitals that implement these
quality standards are saving lives, Dr. Chassin said.
"These measures are derived from really, really strong evidence in the
literature that adherence to these processes improves patient outcomes," he
said.
The commission is working to develop measures on inpatient psychiatric care
and perinatal care. The quality performance captured in these metrics
represents a small portion of the care that is provided daily in
hospitals.
"We will never be able to cover every condition and every aspect of care
with very specific, focused quality measures of this kind," Dr. Chassin
said. "That's why we have a comprehensive accreditation program to look
very broadly at the way hospitals and other health care organizations are
functioning."
The full and original article can be found here:
http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2010/02/01/prsd0203.htm
