Cape Fear Valley Earns National Quality Award

FAYETTEVILLE – Cape Fear Valley Health is being rewarded for consistently delivering high quality care.

The health system was named an Attainment Award winner under the Health Quality Incentive Demonstration (HQID) Project for 2011. As a result, Cape Fear Valley Health will receive $50,000 in additional insurance reimbursement payments from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

The federal agency partnered with the Premier healthcare alliance to create the pay-for-performance study six years ago. The project’s goal is to improve patient care quality and to determine if financial incentives are effective at improving patient care quality among hospitals. Just 272 hospitals participate in the study nationwide.

Cape Fear Valley Health won for its work in the areas of heart attack, heart failure, heart bypass surgery, pneumonia, hip and knee replacement surgery and surgical care improvement. To date, the health system has received 23 HQID awards and received more than $450,000.

CMS issued out approximately $12 million in additional incentive payments to just 211 hospitals in 2011. Overall, CMS has awarded more than $60 million throughout all six years of the HQID project.
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. These are considered best practices, which lead to best patient outcomes.

The Premier healthcare alliance is a performance improvement alliance of more than 2,500 hospitals nationwide and 78,000 other healthcare facilities, which collaborate to improve quality and cost-effectiveness. To learn more, visit www.premierinc.com.

Cape Fear Valley Named Top Performer Hospital

FAYETTEVILLE – Cape Fear Valley has been named a Premier QUEST Top Performer hospital this year for meeting stringent performance goals under the demonstration project.

Based on year-2 results, the health system received awards for top performance in the following areas:

- Saving Lives
- Safely reducing the cost of patient care
- Delivering the most reliable and effective care

Cape Fear Valley was one of just 76 hospitals nationwide to achieve QUEST Top Performer status this year.

QUEST is a voluntary, three-year project created to incentivize hospitals to increase healthcare quality, while also reducing costs, to prepare for impending changes to the healthcare industry.

It was created by Charlotte-based Premier, a performance improvement alliance of more than 2,400 U.S. hospitals and nearly 70,000 other healthcare facilities working together to achieve high quality, cost-effective care.

More than 150 hospitals nationwide joined QUEST in 2008 to set initial performance goals and then try to meet them annually during the project. Participating hospitals can collaborate and share knowledge with each other to develop best practice methods, which benefits all hospitals.

The federal government will soon begin penalizing poor-performing hospitals by reducing their Medicare insurance reimbursement payments. Higher performing hospitals will receive bonuses. QUEST hospitals consistently outperform other hospitals at a lower cost, benefitting everyone.