The 112 top-performing hospitals earned a total of $7 million in incentive payments for substantial and continual advancement in quality of care, according to the latest results of the Premier Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration (HQID), which demonstrate across-the-board improvement in the performance of participating hospitals. Launched in October 2003 by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Premier Inc. healthcare alliance, HQID, the demonstration was designed to test new payment systems under Medicare that would improve the safety, quality and efficiency of care delivered in the nation’s hospitals. Fifteen hospitals moved from “worst to first” rankings, advancing from the bottom to the top fifth of hospitals in one or more clinical areas. These hospitals improved by an average 32.6 percentage points in quality scores over three years, say the orgs.
