Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com

 

Published - Wednesday, October 22, 2003

Report measures Gundersen Lutheran's performance

By TERRY RINDFLEISCH | Of the Tribune staff

It takes an average of 1 hour, 22 minutes after a heart attack to get a balloon angioplasty to open a closed heart artery at Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center in La Crosse. That's an hour and a half earlier than the national average.

Getting a short appointment with a doctor specializing in internal medicine takes an average of 8.6 days at Gundersen Lutheran's main clinic, but you can see a family practice doctor the same day at the Sparta clinic.

These are some of the measures released Tuesday by the Wisconsin Collaborative Healthcare Quality in its first performance and progress report, which includes an initial set of 42 comparative measures of health-care quality and details the performance of six multi-specialty physician groups, seven hospitals and four health plans in the state.

Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center, its rural clinics and its health plan participated in the initiative. Trane Co. is a partner in the collaborative. Franciscan Skemp Healthcare did not participate.

The report, which was released at the collaborative's first quality health-care summit in Milwaukee, is an effort to improve the quality of health care in Wisconsin.

Dr. Jeffrey Thompson, Gunder-sen Lutheran CEO, said the report was developed in collaboration with health care providers and purchasers such as Trane Co.

He said the report looks at access, efficiency, patient satisfaction, outcomes and safety.

"It's all about how we can improve what we're doing," Thompson said. "It's a model of transparency and how we stand against the nation, the state and our peers. It's the good, bad and not so good."

Thompson said health-care providers need to be bold and share performance data. "It's hard to prove what you don't measure," he said, adding that his goal is to improve how his employees take care of patients.

The report showed Gundersen Lutheran was consistently at or near the national average on the measures, Thompson said. "We were not perfect, and there are a lot of things we can do better," he said.

The report also contains data from the Leapfrog Group, which was released earlier and looked at computerized drug orders, intensive care unit staffing and high-risk treatments.

Other health-care providers measured in the report are Bellin Health, Green Bay; Dean Health System in Madison; Froedert Hospital in Milwaukee; Marshfield Clinic; Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee; St. Marys Hospital Medical Center in Madison; St. Joseph's Hospital in Marshfield; and ThedaCare in Appleton.

Terry Rindfleisch can be reached at (608) 791-8227 or at trindfleisch@lacrossetribune.com.

BY THE NUMBERS

EFFICIENCY — HEART ATTACK

  • Aspirin at arrival: 98 percent of patients received aspirin.

  • Beta-blocker medication at arrival: 99 percent of patients received the medication.

  • Median time to administer clot-busting drugs: 45 minutes (national average 42 minutes.)

  • Median time to start angioplasty: One hour, 22 minutes (National average is 2 hours, 55 minutes.)

  • ACE inhibitor drugs for left ventircular systolic dysfunction: 97 percent of patients received the drugs. (National average is 75 percent.)

  • Aspirin prescribed at discharge from hospital: 100 percent of patients receive aspirin.

  • Adult smoking cessation advice/counseling: 87 percent of patients receive it. (National average is 61 percent.)

  • Beta-blocker medication prescribed at discharge: 99 percent of patients are prescribed the drugs.

    • Average length of stay in hospital

  • Congestive heart failure: 4 days

  • Heart attack: 3.9 days

  • Uncomplicated vaginal delivery: 1.9 days

    • Average Charge

  • Congestive heart failure: $10,703

  • Heart attack: $13,639

  • Uncomplicated vaginal delivery: $4,574

    • Access

  • Waiting time for family practice appointment

  • Main clinic-La Crosse: 1.2 days for short appointment; 2.9 days for long appointment

  • Onalaska clinic: 7.5 days for short appointment; 10 days for long appointment

  • La Crescent, Minn., clinic: 4.3 days for short appointment; 6.9 days for long appointment

  • Prairie du Chien, Wis., clinic: 2.6 days for short appointment; 4 days for long appointment

  • Sparta, Wis., clinic: No wait for short appointment; one day for long appointment

    • ON THE NET

    For all the data, visit www.wiqualitycollaborative.org.

     

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