Letter from the BWPO Chairman
Dear Colleagues:
In a rapidly changing health care environment, we must continually work to ensure that we are providing the highest quality of care as efficiently as possible.
With new pay-for-performance contracts that begin this year, we are presented with opportunities and challenges for performance improvement. In the past, most pay-for-performance metrics were tied to adult primary care; going forward, the contracts require that all physicians are actively engaged in performance improvement activities.
This past spring, each department identified a director of Performance Improvement (DPI). The DPIs are responsible for working with the physicians in their department to educate them about the pay-for-performance goals and requirements and to work with their colleagues to identify specialist-specific improvement metrics and collect baseline data. We have also asked that they reach out to their counterparts at MGH to determine if they can identify a common specialist-specific metric. In 2011, the goal will be to collect baseline data for specific metrics and work on performance improvement.
Over the coming year, BWPO staff will be working closely with the DPIs to ensure that all physicians are engaged in performance improvement work and are doing what is necessary to earn back pay-for-performance withhold. We also are working with the DPIs to begin preparing for newer payment models, such as bundled and global payments. We anticipate a shift within the next few years to these models, which require improved management to reduce costs while achieving quality targets.
Please work with your DPIs and take an active role in identifying performance improvement measures that are meaningful. I cannot emphasize enough the role every physician will need to take to help us achieve our quality and efficiency goals across primary care and specialty services.
As payment reform evolves, we want to emerge as a national leader in redesigning the delivery of high-value health care in an academic medical center. Thank you for your continued work to ensure that we provide the best care to patients in the most efficient way.
Sincerely,
Robert Barbieri, MD
Chairman, BWPO