Medicine Digest

Tuesday, March 19, 2013About the InitiativeQUEST which stands for quality, efficiency, safety and transparency was launched in 2007 by the Premier health care alliance. The collaborative started with an initial group of 157 hospitals and has grown to include 333 participating hospitals.The initiative tracks hospitals progress in:

• Adherence to evidence-based practices;
• Cost of care;
• Patient experience;
• Patient harm;
• Patient mortality; and
• Readmissions (Modern Healthcare, 3/18).

To improve their performance, hospitals participating in the QUEST collaborative share outcomes data, best practices and expertise.

Use of Technology

Hospitals in the QUEST collaborative use PremierConnect an integrated technology platform and social networking community to help health care providers:

• Connect with one another;
• Obtain information on evidence-based practices; and
• Share patient data.

The platform includes clinical and operational applications that help facilitate data-driven decisions about care (Monegain, Healthcare IT News, 3/19).

Results of the Initiative

According to Premier, hospitals in the QUEST collaborative have an average cost per discharge that is more than $1,110 less than national averages.

In addition, hospitals in the QUEST collaborative have 10% lower risk-adjusted mortality rates than a group of similar non-QUEST hospitals, Premier said.

Since the launch of the program, Premier noted that participating hospitals have experienced a:

• 60% decline in central line-associated bloodstream infection rates; and
• 23% decline in baseline sepsis rates (Modern Healthcare, 3/18).