Tom Evans, MD, from the Iowa Healthcare Collaborative (IHC) joined the South Dakota Association of Healthcare Organizations Board of Trustees last week for a discussion on improvements occurring within the Compass Hospital Improvement and Innovation Network (HIIN), which is a partnership with IHC and 42 South Dakota hospitals. HIINs are guiding more than 4,000 hospitals nationwide in the continued reduction of hospital-acquired conditions and preventable readmissions.
Evans shared that every HIIN’s performance is evaluated bi-monthly using a scoring system called “Reporting, Achievement and Improvement Summary for Excellence” (RAISE). Currently the Compass HIIN has a RAISE score of 103.9, which is well above all other HIIN’s in the nation who have a combined average score of 90. When RAISE scoring was implemented in April 2017, the Compass HIIN had a score of 41.
In an effort to recognize improvement among small volume hospitals such as critical access hospitals (CAH) and small rural hospitals, HIINs are awarded bonus points for certain measures. A review of RAISE scores for all HIIN rural and CAH facilities nationwide revealed a RAISE score of 5.7 as compared to the Compass HIIN’s score of 15 for CAHs and small rural hospitals.
Evans stated that the extraordinary improvements made by the Compass HIIN was in large part due to South Dakota and Iowa’s partnership. Continued heightened awareness and improvement efforts are occurring to further integrate quality measures into hospital operations.
