Sound Physicians offers Value-Based Purchasing Performance Assessment Tool to hospitals at no cost

Sound Physicians, a leading hospitalist organization focused on measurably improving the quality, satisfaction, efficiency and financial performance of healthcare delivery, today announced the availability of its Value-Based Purchasing Performance Assessment Tool to all hospitals at no cost.

“Over the past decade, we've invested deeply in our people and performance management expertise to help hospitals achieve results using their hospitalist programs”

The tool provides hospitals with a snapshot of their performance on the Value-Based Purchasing clinical process of care and patient experience of care measures, including the each hospital's overall performance score using the scoring methodology from the Hospital Inpatient Value-Based Purchasing Program (VBP) issued by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on April 29, 2011.

Sound Physicians is making this tool available to all hospitals, so leaders can assess current performance and identify areas for improvement without having to do the complicated calculations themselves. "Over the past decade, we've invested deeply in our people and performance management expertise to help hospitals achieve results using their hospitalist programs," said Robert Bessler, M.D., CEO of Sound Physicians. "Our partners are able to leverage our deep, focused investments in training, informatics and clinical process."

Dr. Bessler is also hosting a complimentary webcast on Value-Based Purchasing on August 11, 2011 at 4p.m. ET. He will be joined by Leslie V. Norwalk, Esq., a former head of CMS and Edward G. Murphy, M.D., one of only two physicians to be included in all seven annual rankings of the 50 Most Influential Physician Executives by Modern Healthcare and past President of Carilion Clinic. Hospital leaders can register for the webcast at: www.soundphysicians.com/vbpwebcast.

Starting July 1, 2011, hospitals will either be rewarded or penalized for their performance on 12 clinical process of care measures and eight patient experience of care measures. CMS will withhold approximately $850 million in FY 2013 and then redistribute those funds as incentive payments, with low-performing hospitals effectively subsidizing high-performing hospitals. Many hospitals stand to lose several million dollars over the next five years.

Sound Physicians' Value-Based Performance Assessment Tool allows hospital leaders to quickly see how much money is at risk and how much their lack of performance on specific measures will cost them without improvement. Hospital executives can request a complimentary copy of the performance assessment for their hospital by either registering for the webcast or sending an e-mail to [email protected].

Source Sound Physicians