Cape Fear Valley Rewarded For High Quality Patient Care

FAYETTEVILLE – Cape Fear Valley Health System is being rewarded for consistently meeting nationally recognized standards of patient care under an on-going quality study by the federal governement.

The Health Quality Incentive Demonstration (HQID) is a pay-for-performance project sponsored by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Premier healthcare alliance. The project was created to improve patient care quality and to determine if financial incentives are effective at improving patient care quality among hospitals. Just 250 hospitals nationwide are participating in the study.

Cape Fear Valley was named a Top Performer in the Hip and Knee surgery category and received Performance Attainment Awards for scores in Heart Attack, Heart Failure, Pneumonia and Surgical Care. The health system also received a Top Improvement award for Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery (CABG).

For meeting its goals, Cape Fear Valley will receive additional reimbursement from CMS. The federal agency administers several health-related programs and reimburses hospitals for treating those patients.

HQID is the first CMS incentive program of its kind. It measures such things as prescribing a daily aspirin to prevent heart attacks and teaching heart failure patients to weigh themselves daily, which are considered “best practices” to achieve best patient outcomes. Hospitals are rated on whether they performed the measures for every patient at every encounter within five clinical areas.

Now in its fifth year, HQID data shows the project has saved 70,000 lives and $4.5 billion in its first three years due to fewer patient complications, re-admissions and shorter hospital stays. To learn more about the HQID project and Cape Fear Valley’s awards, please visit www.cms.hhs.gov or www.premierinc.com.