Hospitals’ focus on quality and team work paying off

U.S. News & World Report — ranker of all things from colleges to mutual funds — recently released its list of the nation’s “Best States,” and many of us were disappointed to see South Carolina rated 45th. Frankly, if not for our strong economy, we might have been even lower.

But if we looked at health care alone, South Carolina would have come in 39th — and there are reasons to be optimistic about a healthier future. Over the past decade, health-care experts and advocates — in partnership with the S.C. Hospital Association — have launched a series of innovative strategies that align closely with the most pressing health issues identified in national rankings: infant and overall mortality, population health and hospital quality.

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How to preserve, protect health of all South Carolinians

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Here are four examples of programs that are making a difference for South Carolina.

▪ The S.C. Birth Outcomes Initiative is a collaborative effort to reduce infant mortality rates and low birthweights, generally regarded as one of the basic measures of public health. A recent Centers for Disease Control study cited South Carolina as one of three states showing the most improvement in infant mortality — with declines of more than 20 percent from 2005 to 2014. In a CNN report on the study, Dr. Paul Jarris, chief medical officer for the March of Dimes, attributed the improvement to “a strong partnership between the state Department of Health, the state Medicaid office, BlueCross BlueShield and the hospital association in which they are coordinating their efforts.”

▪ The Heart and Stroke Care Alliance is a public and private partnership to get heart attack and stroke victims into treatment faster. The initiative, which involves every state hospital that provides interventional cardiac services, the Hospital Association, state and national professional groups and the Department of Health and Environmental Control, has cut the time it takes to get a patient from the emergency room to treatment by a lifesaving 48 percent. Today, 97 percent of heart attack patients in South Carolina receive treatment within the optimal time frame of 90 minutes.

▪ The Collaborative Care Journey is a learning network sponsored by the Hospital Association and BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina to improve post-discharge results. By actively coordinating and planning for a patient’s post-discharge care, we can reduce readmissions, improve patient satisfaction and reduce overall costs. A low 30-day readmission rate is considered an indicator of hospital quality, and South Carolina ranked No. 21 among all states on that metric.

▪ Finally, the Alliance for a Healthier South Carolina reduces costs and disparities in four critical areas: healthy babies, healthy children, healthy minds and healthy bodies. This broad and deep coalition of 50 members involves hospitals, businesses, universities, insurers, state agencies and nonprofits. Our dashboard tracks 15 ambitious but achievable measures of success, and we’re seeing real progress.

None of us can tackle major health issues alone, but together, we can harness our collective brainpower and energy to improve the most important measures of population health.

We’re pleased with the progress being made, but we’re not satisfied — and we won’t be until South Carolina ranks among the nation’s best states for health status.

You can help. To learn more, join a coalition, sign up for our newsletter or share your own ideas, go to healthiersc.org and follow @HealthierSC on social media.

This story was originally published April 9, 2017 at 6:04 PM with the headline "Hospitals’ focus on quality and team work paying off."