The development of a new tool for measuring return on investment in hospital-based pay-for- performance (P4P) programs has been announced by the Leapfrog Group, HSM Group and Discern Consulting.
The ROI Estimator is available free on Leapfrog's website and is the first of its kind available to measure the human and financial benefits of a hospital-based P4P program, according to Catherine Eikel, Leapfrog's director of programs.
Though originally developed for use with Leapfrog's P4P plan, the Leapfrog Hospital Rewards Program(TM) (LHRP), the ROI Estimator can be adapted for use with any hospital P4P program, Eikel said.
According to Sheryl Bronkesh, president of The HSM Group, a healthcare marketing research and consulting firm, the ROI Estimator will ultimately help improve quality of care across the nation. "The ability to estimate the costs and benefits of participating in a P4P program will help speed adoption of the concept of rewarding the provision of excellent health care," Bronkesh said.
The ROI Estimator is designed to show potential ROI based on five tracking areas: heart bypass, heart attack care, angioplasty, community acquired pneumonia, and deliveries and newborn care, according to a statement released by Leapfrog.
The five clinical areas used in the ROI Estimator are taken from the Leapfrog Group's LHRP program and are based on measures from the Joint Commission and the Leapfrog Hospital Quality and Safety Survey - a publicly available, industry standard in rating the quality and safety of individual hospitals, Leapfrog said.
The Estimator accounts for the cost savings accrued from improved performance but does not take into account the additional economic benefits of reducing absenteeism and improving productivity at work, Leapfrog said.