Can you hold and gain quality through a merger?
Can you hold and gain quality through a merger?
When the Stillwater (MN) Medical Group merged with the Curve Crest Medical Clinic in 1995, the clinicians and support staff managers encountered merger trauma just as anybody else does, but they handled it differently. Consequently, they not only sustained the quality of care through the merger, they even improved it.
The physicians balked at talking about administrative issues. That’s when Audrey Hansen, RN, PHN, director of Clinical Practice for the St. Croix Valley HealthCare system (parent company of both clinics), eased them through merger trauma by rallying them around their passion for good patient care. She explains, "That’s what brings them together."
The Stillwater physicians brought to the table their experience and confidence in practice guidelines, but they lacked a strong emphasis on prevention. The Curve Crest physicians excelled in keeping patients current on preventive care while harboring the typical bias toward practice guidelines.
Hansen singled out the preventive piece as the hook on which to pull the Curve Crest doctors into the habit of using guidelines. "There were all the heartbreaks and giving up that anybody experiences in a merger. But we wanted to show all the physicians how to learn from each other and how a piece of excellence could be sustained even during a merger."
To realize the vision, she tracked the up-to-date records for all preventive measures throughout the merger. The Stillwater Clinic adopted Curve Crest’s preventive guidelines, and fine-tuned them. (See the joint chart audit graph, at left.) The up-to-date preventive care records for the combined clinics jumped approximately 27% during the merger process.
What’s more, the merged group won the 1998 Gold Award for Excellence in Quality from the Buyers Health Care Action Group (BHCAG). BHCAG is a group of self-insured employers in the Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN, area who purchase employee health benefits from 25 care systems in Minnesota and surrounding states. (See this month’s cover story for more information.) Hansen says the cash prize of $100,000 is slated for reinvestment in the QI program.
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