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St. Joseph's Hospital Selected to Participate in Chest Pain Short Stay Project
Hospital Takes Leadership Stance in Monitoring Billing Appropriateness, Securing Patient Quality Outcomes
| Source: St. Joseph's Hospital
ST. PAUL, MN -- (MARKET WIRE) -- December 13, 2006 -- St. Joseph's Hospital has been invited to join
a small-group, health care collaborative focused on improving the accuracy
of patient billing while maintaining the integrity of care provided. This
15-month initiative is being supported and implemented by Stratis Health,
Minnesota's Medicare quality improvement organization.
St. Joseph's Hospital -- a Twin Cities leader in comprehensive
cardiovascular services and a recipient of Solucient's Top 100
Cardiovascular Hospital award for 2006 -- will join less than a dozen
hospitals throughout the state to test various mechanisms for ensuring that
chest pain patients (including Medicare beneficiaries) receive the proper
treatment in the most cost-effective manner.
Collaborative participants will have autonomy in how they create and test
processes and protocols to establish best practices; hospitals may look at
opportunities within a number of departments for overall improvement in the
patient care experience. Results will be shared with all Minnesota
hospitals early in 2008 via a WebEx educational session.
Colleen Nadeau, Director of Cardiovascular Services, HealthEast hospitals,
says, "St. Joseph's is committed to exceeding performance benchmarks. From
the emergency department and our physician/nurse team to the utilization
review staff, we will use our cardiovascular program successes as a guide
to identify all options for achieving high-quality, cost-efficient outcomes
for chest pain patients."
St. Joseph's Hospital is Minnesota's first hospital and was founded by the
Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in 1853. Located in downtown St. Paul,
it is the largest of the HealthEast hospitals with 401 licensed beds. The
hospital has a 24-hour emergency room and provides a comprehensive range of
medical, surgical, diagnostic, and rehabilitative services, as well as
mental health and chemical dependency treatment programs.