Quality Management Committee

Written by Dr. Ali Sarram

One thing is clear.  No matter where the current health care debate takes us, pay for performance is here to stay.  The government and private payers are increasingly more sophisticated in their ability to measure our outcomes. In some cases, they have already tied our reimbursements to our ability to provide high quality, cost effective health care.

At TMCA, the Quality Management Committee (QMC) has initiated a project to decrease readmissions to the hospital within 30 days of discharge. This applies to patients who have the diagnosis of congestive heart failure.  This is in anticipation of new regulations that would deny payment to the hospital (and possibly medical staff) if readmissions occur within 30 days of discharge.  We are in the process of putting together a taskforce of physician leaders and hospital staff to look at all the moving parts that lead to readmission of these patients.  We will look at what happens before, during and after a patient is admitted to hospital with this diagnosis, and will identify what we can do to prevent readmissions.

This is an example of a paradigm shift in how hospitals and physicians must view a patient's flow through the hospital.  No longer can the hospital be viewed as an isolated stop in a patient's journey to health.  We, hospitals and physicians must view the hospital as an integrated part of a three leg journey: before, during and after a patient steps foot in the hospital.

I encourage the medical staff to participate and contribute to this effort.  If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me or any other QMC leaders.