The systems, which also include Denver Health, Geisinger Health System and Intermountain Healthcare, will share data on outcomes, quality and costs, working with the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, a key proponent of accountable care organizations.
The collaborative will initially focus on eight costly conditions and treatments with wide variations in quality and outcomes: knee replacement, diabetes, heart failure, asthma, weight-loss surgery, labor and delivery, spine surgery and depression. Its first project will be total knee replacement, which is performed more than 300,000 times a year and costs between $16,000-$24,000 on average.
The healthcare systems plan “to arrive at optimal care models which can then be implemented by many other health care systems,” the release said.
Read more coverage of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice:
– Kentucky’s Norton Healthcare, Humana Form ACO
– ACOs Could Initially Function Without EHRs, Pioneers of Model Say
