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St. Louis, MO
Regional Roll-Out (RRO) Leader/Lead Organization Information Name: St. Louis Area Business Health Coalition Contact: Louise Probst BHC’s interest in becoming a Regional Roll-Out leader is derived from its vision of a community where comparative cost and quality data on health care treatments and providers is freely available and used by consumers, employers, health plans, and providers in making health care, health benefit, and provider compensation decisions. BHC applied to be part of the first wave of Regional Roll Out because of the cross cutting system-wide improvements targeted by Leapfrog. Although research demonstrated the benefits in system improvements (such as the implementation of computerized provider order entry and intensivists staffing), these improvements were all but being ignored by the provider community. Adoption rates by hospitals were disturbingly low, in part, because none of these system improvements generates additional revenues on its own. The Leapfrog Group’s work helped hasten the adoption of safe practices through its voluntary survey that differentiated hospitals’ performance, informed the public, and helped motivate hospitals to improve patient safety faster. In your view, what kind of impact has Leapfrog had on your market thus far? Leapfrog has had a positive impact in the St. Louis market by making it uncomfortable for hospitals that do not report to the survey. Although the response rate from area hospitals is disappointingly low (20%), most hospitals are fully aware of the Leapfrog Group and its four safety leaps. Even though many hospitals have decided not to report, most have reviewed the leaps, allocated capital expenditures in information technology, and re-organized their patient safety priorities to ensure that they meet the criteria. • Hospitals are moving towards CPOE, electronic medical records, or other IT enhancements; Leapfrog has also had a positive impact on the smaller, rural hospitals which have built upon Leapfrog’s safety practices to improve the culture of patient safety in their facilities. Regional Roll-Out Market Information Geographic coverage: St. Louis MSA, which includes southern Illinois Population: St. Louis MSA includes approximately 2.6 million people Employer characteristics: Number of employer/coalition lives in RRO area: approximately 400,000 in the region List of area’s largest employers (information based on St. Louis Business Journal Book of List 2006): BJC HealthCare – 21, 814 Hospital characteristics: Total number of general acute care facilities (total number of targeted hospitals broken down by hospital system) BJC HealthCare – 11 hospitals 12 other hospitals Total number of beds – 9,090 Insurer characteristics: Local health plans and % of the market share for HMO/PPO products (state-wide statistics based on 2005 Consumer’s Guide Commercial Managed Care in Missouri. This does not include lives in self-funded plans. St. Louis MSA specific statistics is not available) Aetna – 3.2% State/Local government activities: The “Missouri Nosocomial Infection Control Act”, which passed in 2004, requires health care facilities to take appropriate actions to decrease the risk of infection and to report the rate certain types of infections, including: Central-line bloodstream infections Initiatives to require adverse events reporting and make hospital discharge data set publicly available have also been introduced in Missouri.
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