Appropriate Care Measures

Premier and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) launched the Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration (HQID) pay-for-performance project in 2003 with more than 250 hospitals across the nation. Palmetto Health is one of them.

The following six high-volume inpatient conditions using national measures of quality care, called Appropriate Care Measures, are being tracked through HQID and at Palmetto Health:

• acute myocardial infarction (AMI/heart attack)
• coronary artery bypass graft (CABG)
• congestive heart failure (CHF)
• community aquired pneumonia (CAP)
• hip and knee (HK) replacement
• surgical care improvement project (SCIP)

Each condition is made up of multiple clinical indicators. For example, each patient with AMI/heart attack is evaluated as to whether the patient received aspirin on arrival; an aspirin and a beta blocker prescribed at discharge; angioplasty within 90 minutes of arrival; smoking cessation education and other elements. The goal for each patient is to receive every element of care as appropriate to their clinical situation.