Valued Voice

Wisconsin’s critical access hospitals (CAHs) ranked second in the nation for their quality reporting and improvement rates for calendar year 2022, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Wisconsin has consistently ranked in the top 10 since 2015.
 
This year’s 10 top-performing states are: Utah, Wisconsin, South Carolina, West Virginia, Nebraska, Maine & Pennsylvania (tied for 6^th), Michigan & New Hampshire (tied for 8^th), and Virginia.

HRSA’s measures are from its Medicare Beneficiary Quality Improvement Project (MBQIP), in which all 58 of Wisconsin’s CAHs participate. The MBQIP reports allow hospitals to look at their own data, measure their outcomes against other critical access hospitals and partner with other hospitals to improve outcomes for patients. 
 
“This ranking reaffirms what we already know – hospitals in all corners of Wisconsin remain committed to high-quality health care,” said WHA President and CEO Eric Borgerding. “It is a privilege to partner with Wisconsin’s rural hospitals through WHA’s nationally-recognized quality improvement programming and be their voice with effective advocacy for strong federal and state public policy,” Borgerding added.
 
The Wisconsin Office of Rural Health facilitates hospitals' participation in MBQIP, a federal initiative to track and benchmark measures in the following categories:
 

• Inpatient (2): Influenza immunizations for Health Care Personnel & Antibiotic Stewardship
• Outpatient (4): (Acute Myocardial Infarction, ED Throughput)
• Patient satisfaction (10): HCAHPS
• Emergency Department Transfer Communication (EDTC) (8)

WHA worked closely with critical access hospitals under the Emergency Department Transfer Communication (EDTC) program in 2018-2019. Convening hospitals and sharing best practices for streamlining patients being transferred to a higher level of care has truly benefited patient outcomes and improved the communication of patient status between hospitals. 
 
“Critical access hospitals in Wisconsin have been leaders in voluntarily reporting quality data into our CheckPoint database,” WHA Chief Quality Officer Nadine Allen said. “By voluntarily reporting public and transparent measures, these hospitals proactively drive quality initiatives that ultimately benefit patient safety. Wisconsin's rural hospitals continue to demonstrate their commitment to quality in this program with patient experience scores outperforming the national average.”
 
For more information, contact WHA Chief Quality Officer Nadine Allen.