Hospital administration

McKay-Dee Hospital Center in Ogden, Utah, part of the Intermountain Healthcare System, had readmission rates in the lowest 3 percent of hospitals across the nation for all three clinical areas reported to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for the selection period, and its heart failure and pneumonia readmission rates were within the best 1 percent of hospitals reporting.

McKay-Dee’s success may be attributed to the following:

• comprehensive quality improvement strategies, supported by extensive, systemwide clinical research and training in evidence-based care;
• standardization of care through “care process models,” or clinical protocols, and heavy use of hospitalists;
• information systems designed to monitor quality;
• interdisciplinary care coordination and discharge planning with individualized patient education and scheduling of follow-up appointments before discharge;

comprehensive identification of heart disease patients for education, post-discharge phone calls, and referral to the outpatient heart failure clinic;

integration with community providers, both within and outside of Intermountain’s network, which provides a continuum of care and helps ensure patients are connected with a medical home; and

Intermountain’s role as a leader in health care delivery and payment innovations, exemplified in its involvement with pilots of bundled payment/accountable care arrangements.