Premier is launching a new data sharing initiative to help hospitals meet federal reimbursement requirements.
QUEST 2020 builds upon the success of an earlier iteration credited with preventing 176,000 deaths and saving $15 billion at 350 hospitals over eight years.
Premier, the Charlotte, N.C.-based group purchasing and healthcare improvement company, is launching the new three-year program, which will collect data on acute, ambulatory and community health programs to promote patient safety and care quality, according to a news release.
The company's original QUEST collaborative, a national quality-improvement program started in 2008, required members to use proven methods of quality, safety and efficiency based on standards set by observing the program's top-performing healthcare providers.
QUEST 2020 will focus on regulation compliance, data integration and solving service-line challenges that hospitals need to address to prepare for alternative payment models such as the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act and the Merit-based Incentive Payment System.
“Healthcare's progression toward requiring alternative payment models presents a new dynamic reality to address,” Premier CEO Susan DeVore said in the release.
The original QUEST program also dropped readmission rates by 32%, according to Premier.
Kettering Health Network, which serves southwest Ohio, plans on participating in the new program that starts in January. According to Kettering Chief Quality Officer Teri Sholder, the original QUEST collaborative helped the hospital improve patient safety by 36% across its six hospitals.
