Will Paying Hospitals to Teach Each Other Get Results?

In the other three areas, Ascension's healthcare professionals and executives can be expected to be among the learners. In any case, they'll participate heavily in all of them.

Infrastructure will be another relatively big spending target for the funds.

"There's significant investment in expanding the technology that supports having this many calls online in a coordinated way," she says. "We'll use our network within Ascension but we could be inviting others into our clinical meetings and we're also packaging our material for the content provider."

Why Ascension? Well, compared to the national averages, it has achieved 25% lower mortality overall, 65% fewer birth traumas, 89% lower neonatal mortality rates, not to mention 94% lower in hospital-acquired pressure ulcers, 74% lower in ventilator-associated pneumonia and 43% lower in central-line blood stream infections.

But Hendrich is focusing not on Ascension's achievements, but rather on the program's offerings, which are rolling out pretty much immediately. Transferring the lessons has all her attention. When I spoke with her a couple of weeks ago, she was already putting the finishing touches on an in-depth program that Ascension will teach in partnership with Intermountain Healthcare on obstetrics—specifically ways to limit birth trauma.

View All Comments Make a Comment

Comments are moderated. Please be patient.