Fletcher Allen receives high marks in MVP report
MVP Healthcare has recently released the results of a healthcare quality report that has shown that Fletcher Allen Health Care equals or surpasses, in most categories, other academic medical centers in MVP's region. MVP is an HMO that covers upstate New York and parts of New England. It covers 60,000 Vermonters.
The report shows that Fletcher Allen met high standards for nursing, surgery, physician staffing and communication with doctors outside the hospital. But the Burlington hospital finished below a some hospitals, including Albany Medical Center and Dartmough-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, NH, in overall patient satisfaction, which was attributed to some extent to the inconveniences caused by the construction.
AHC and DHMC also received generally high marks in the report.
MVP Health Care members can now see how other MVP members have rated the
major hospitals in the health insurer's network as part of
hospital-specific MVP Hospital Quality Profiles available through the MVP
Web site (www.mvphealthcare.com). MVP has produced profiles for the 24
hospitals in its 100-hospital network that treat the majority of its
members.
MVP asked members to rate their experience with these hospitals on overall
satisfaction with the quality care they received, their satisfaction with
the nursing care they received and if they received any services in error
during their hospital stays.
The Hospital Quality Profiles were prepared in cooperation with the
hospitals and also include information about whether or not the hospitals
have in place, or are planning to begin, programs designed to improve the
quality of patient care such as computer physician order entry, and having
physicians certified in critical care medicine on staff as specialists.
The profiles also include information about how well the hospitals
communicate back to members' Primary Care Physicians following inpatient
hospital stays and emergency room visits.
By viewing the reports, members can also determine the number of
procedures the hospitals performed in three areas: heart bypass surgery,
abdominal aneurysm repair and heart balloon angioplasty.
MVP began profiling the hospitals two years ago as part of its effort to
improve the quality of hospital care its members receive.
"We profiled hospitals on member satisfaction and on indicators that have
been identified as critical to high-quality hospital care by national
experts including the Leap Frog Group," said Jerry Salkowe, M.D., MVP's
vice president for clinical quality improvement. "Our goal is to improve
the quality of hospital care our members receive and highlight the efforts
that hospitals in our network are making to improve quality and enhance
patient safety," he said.
The Leap Frog Group is a national coalition comprised of employers and
health care organizations whose goal is to improve the quality of hospital
care.
"We based our profiles on the Leap Frog initiatives including such
measures as computer physician order entry which reduces the likelihood of
hospital prescription errors by eliminating the use of paper
prescriptions, because measures such as these have been proven to improve
patient safety and reduce medical errors in hospitals," Salkowe said.
The Vermont and New Hampshire hospitals MVP produced quality profiles for are:
VERMONT
--Bennington
Southwestern Vermont Medical Center
--Burlington
Fletcher Allen Health Care
--Rutland
Rutland Regional Medical Center
NEW HAMPSHIRE
--Lebanon
Dartmouth Hitchock Medical Center