Premier announced a new P4P program last week. It’s calling for hospital participants. The press release says:
The Premier healthcare alliance and a group of healthcare leaders today launched a comprehensive project called “QUEST: High Performing Hospitals” to improve patient safety and quality in the nation’s hospitals while safely reducing healthcare costs.
QUEST is a three-year program through which participating hospitals will report data to Premier on a set of clearly defined performance measures encompassing aspects of quality, efficiency, safety and patient satisfaction. Premier will analyze the data, facilitate sharing of best practices, and provide incentives for top-performing hospitals.
QUEST follows in the footsteps of Premier’s HQID P4P program, undertaken as a CMS demonstration project.
Applications to participate are due September 30.
While P4P programs such as this one can certianly achieve short-term improvement in performance against announced and measured metrics, the bigger question is how to maintain and incentivize quality improvement over the long haul.