Cleveland Regional Medical Center (CRMC)'s Technology Improves the Patient Experience

Summary: Technology that allows Cleveland Regional Medical Center (CRMC) to conduct concurrent chart reviews also generates reports that guide nurses and physicians in improving the patient experience, explained Liz Popwell, Cleveland County Healthcare Systems' vice president of systems management. A holistic approach to outpatient care -- including proper discharge instructions, disease-specific survival kits, and outpatient care analysis -- has resulted in a 37 percent drop in hospital readmissions. The challenge to maintaining CRMC's top rating in the Premier Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration Project, she said, is ensuring that new staff members are adequately trained in core measures and processes. Jim Bente, Memorial's vice president of quality and organizational development, Regina Berman, administrative director for performance improvement, and Popwell gave us the inside details on how these hospitals have structured their internal processes to support an environment of performance improvement that has led to quality incentive payments from CMS under the Hospital Quality Improvement program during an April 18, 2007 audio conference, How to Structure a Healthcare Performance Improvement Process That Results in Incentive Payments.