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Clinical Quality Improvement in a Multihospital System: The Voluntary Hospitals of America/Pennsylvania Experience

Voluntary Hospitals of America/Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Sharing of patient outcome data among hospitals hastened the evolution of continuous quality improve ment at Voluntary Hospitals of American/Pennsyl vania (VHA/PA) to a focus on learning from the best: clinical benchmarking. Analysis of VHA/PA MedisGroups comparative outcome data showed sig nificant variation. In the first study, variations from 3 to 25% normal appendectomy rates were noted. A second study on primary and secondary cesarean sec tion rates again showed variation in outcomes. A study of the benchmark hospitals showed character istics, specific to those institutions, that resulted in excellent outcomes. To quantify best processes, VHA/ PA has embarked on a clinical benchmarking project with the assistance of MediQual Systems, Inc.

American Journal of Medical Quality, Vol. 8, No. 2, 56-60 (1993)
DOI: 10.1177/0885713X9300800206


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