Michigan Hospitals Among Best In Nation On Two Treatment Measures For Heart Attack Care

Strong Performance By Hospitals Recorded In Blue Cross Blue Shield Of Michigan's Pay-For-Performance Hospital Program

November 12, 2007

Detroit, MI —Ninety Michigan hospitals that participate in a Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan program which measures and rewards hospitals for improving and providing optimal care to patients together achieved near perfect scores on two measures for treating patients suffering from heart attacks. Michigan hospitals were compared with the national average of hospitals around the country.

"These scores show we are performing at a much higher rate here in Michigan than the rest of the country. And the bottom line is that heart attack patients can be confident Michigan hospitals are taking the necessary steps to make sure they receive the right care at the right time," said Paul Conlon, Trinity Health senior vice president of clinical quality and patient safety.

The participating hospitals were measured on two critical measures for heart attack care: how often they appropriately dispensed aspirin and the use of Beta blockers on patient arrival and discharge. Aspirin can help keep blood clots from forming, and dissolve blood clots that can cause heart attacks. Taking aspirin may also help prevent further heart attacks. Beta blockers are a type of medicine used to lower blood pressure, treat chest pain (angina) and heart failure, and also help prevent further heart attacks.

"The individual heart attack treatment measures for these hospitals reached such high scores that we found it necessary to refocus our efforts," said Robert Milewski, Blues senior vice president of contracting and hospital relations. "There really wasn't any further room for improvement in those measures."

Because of the strong results, the Blues and participating hospitals agreed to move the reward program to a new level of measurement called "perfect care," an emerging trend in the health industry. Instead of measuring separate processes of care, the new measurement focuses on the care a patient receives as a whole, measuring whether he or she receives all appropriate components of care. In 2008, all care measures for the program will be scored by the "perfect care" method.

"It's important for patients to know that Michigan hospitals work together to continuously improve patient care. And Blue Cross helps make those advancements by cooperatively establishing this program and rewarding achievements," said Peter Schonfeld, Michigan Health & Hospital Association senior vice president.

The care measure ratings, which are recorded in percentages, indicate how often a hospital gives recommended care, which is the treatment known to produce the best results for patients.

Under the heart attack care measurements that are now retired due to strong performance, Michigan hospitals in the program had performance rates between 95 and 97 percent for dispensing aspirin to heart attack patients when they arrived at the hospital. That was four percentage points higher than the national average. For dispensing aspirin when a patient was discharged, the hospitals achieved similar rates, which were 10 percentage points higher than the closest comparable national average.

For similar measures involving dispensing Beta blockers on arrival, Michigan hospitals in the Blues program achieved performance rates of between 93 and 94 percent, 10 points higher than the national average. The hospitals also achieved a 96 percent performance rate for dispensing Beta blockers on discharge, 12 percentage points higher than closest comparable national average.

"Overall findings of all hospital measures in this program have steadily improved over the last several years," said Milewski.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan's Hospital Pay-for-Performance program is one of eight Value Partnerships initiatives that have the Blues, physicians and hospitals working together to improve and reward optimal patient care. Hospitals that participate in the Blues' Pay-for-Performance program can earn an incentive of up to four percent of the cost of providing care to all Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan members at their facility. 

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, a nonprofit organization, provides and administers health benefits to more than 4.6 million members residing in Michigan in addition to members of Michigan-headquartered groups who reside outside the state. The company offers a broad variety of plans including: Traditional Blue Cross Blue Shield; Blue Preferred, Community Blue and Healthy Blue Incentives PPOs; Blue Care Network HMO; BCN Healthy Blue Living; Flexible Blue plans compatible with health savings accounts; Medicare Advantage; Part D Prescription Drug plans, and MyBlue products in the under-age-65 individual market. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Blue Care Network are nonprofit corporations and independent licensees of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. http://www.bcbsm.com/