Pronovost Calls for an 'SEC' for Healthcare Quality

Snubbing Johns Hopkins

Last night I spoke with Peter Pronovost, MD, one of the nation's top quality gurus and medical director for the Center for Innovation in Quality Patient Care at Johns Hopkins, and asked what he thinks about all these scorecards, especially the latest one from the Joint Commission, which snubbed his own 560-bed hospital.

The Commission's second annual list highlights 620 stars out of nearly 3,400 acute care hospitals for achieving 95% or greater compliance in 43 process measures during 2011. The Joint Commission is a powerful force, because as the nation's preeminent healthcare accreditation agency, it determines a hospital's fitness for federal reimbursement.

But although the Joint Commission's list of 'top performers' grew by more than 200 hospitals this year, it left many if not most of the most prestigious hospitals that ranked high on the other lists out in the cold.

Most large academic medical centers, including Johns Hopkins and Massachusetts General, two of the largest and most highly regarded organizations in the country, are nowhere to be found. Also absent are the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN; New York Presbyterian; Geisinger Health System; and all the University of California's teaching hospitals.

"It's confusing," Pronovost replies. These reports "all measure different aspects of care. And none of them are really audited, like with financial reports where we have clear auditing standard definitions."

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