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Examination, identification, and reform of new medical technology value assessment and purchasing practices in California
(Archived Project)
Investigator (PI): Williams, Tom
Performing Organization (PO): (Current): Integrated Healthcare Association
Supporting Agency (SA): Blue Shield of California Foundation
Initial Year: 2008
Final Year: 2010
Award Type: Grant
Abstract: This project will gather, analyze, and disseminate two types of data on medical technology used in cardiology and orthopedics and use these data to help hospitals and other stakeholders improve quality of care, purchasing methods, and payment systems in California hospitals. The first type of data come from hospital records on patient demographics, procedures, severity of illness, complications, medical technology employed, costs, revenues, and earnings. The second type of data come from health insurance plans and include the paid claims for physician, hospital, medical device, testing, and related services that compose the "episode of care" for patients with cardiac and orthopedic procedures. Based on expertise gained in our pilot project in Orange County, we will use a consulting firm associated with a hospital Group Purchasing Organization to obtain electronic data feeds from hospital participants. Recruitment will be done with the collaboration of the California Hospital Association, with which we have worked in the pilot project. These data will be merged, cleaned (incomplete or unusual data elements will be corrected by the hospitals), and analyzed. We will compute benchmarks of average and best performance across hospital participants. The episode-of-care data will be obtained from one or more of the health plans that participate in the IHA pay-for-performance program, which is already developing episode data for payment purposes. Hospital-specific results will be presented to the participating hospitals (with benchmark hospitals blinded) for use in their quality improvement and device purchasing strategies. Multivariate statistical methods will be used to analyze the differences in quality and cost measures across hospitals in terms of their choice of medical device, payer mix, patient volume, chain affiliation, and other characteristics. We will hold a statewide conference to present the study's findings and outcomes in May 2010.
MeSH Terms:
  • Benchmarking
  • California
  • Cardiology /instrumentation
  • Diffusion of Innovation
  • Economics, Medical
  • Equipment and Supplies, Hospital /economics
  • Humans
  • Insurance, Health
  • Medical Laboratory Science /*economics
  • Models, Organizational
  • Multivariate Analysis
  • Orthopedic Equipment /economics
  • * Purchasing, Hospital
Country: United States
State: California
Zip Code: 94612
UI: 20083027
Project Status: Archived