Achieving Top Decile

University of Maryland Medical System, Baltimore, MD

After five years of increasingly positive results from initiatives to improve the overall quality of care, the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), a 12-hospital organization that includes the University of Maryland Medical Center, concluded that performance was beginning to “plateau.” Maverick was engaged to help take the organization to the “next level,” which the Board of Trustees deemed to be: “Among the Top Decile” healthcare providers in the country.

Our proprietary “five markers assessment” (Strategy, Process, Infrastructure, Organization, Culture) identified specific areas of opportunity and a comprehensive multi-year initiative was organized, funded and launched.

First year accomplishments included creating client-populated Strategic Work Groups (“SWiGs”) in five focus areas:

• Strategy: to create a System-wide Quality Management Strategy and guide member hospitals on Tactical Plans
• Core Measure Excellence: to improve performance using a three-part program (Awareness, Education and Intervention) and sustain performance by “hardwiring” best practices
• Maryland Hospital Acquired Conditions: to develop an action plan to minimize Potentially Preventable Complications (PPCs) and achieve measurably better clinical and financial performance.
• Quality Management Information System (QMIS): to create a tactical plan for implementation of a Quality Management Information System and a Risk Management system
• Organization: to develop an organization structure for Quality Management (System and hospitals) and to simplify governance and management structures.

Composite quality management scores have improved continuously and steadily from approximately 90% to nearly 98% — well within the targeted performance and within range of achieving “Top Decile.”

Based on the success of first year results and on the Quality Management Strategic and Tactical Plans, second year activity emphasizes design and implementation of approaches to: reduce hospital acquired conditions, reduce readmissions, reduce falls with injury, maintain Core Measure Excellence, and expand System-wide capabilities for the practice of Evidence Based Care.