Fast Facts
- Core measures promote evidence-based patient care.
- Core measures help ensure patients receive care that will lead to better outcomes.
- Core measure compliance results enable patients and their families to make informed decisions about where they receive care.
What It Means
Core measures are national standards of care for common conditions. These standards are based on research, reduce patient complications and improve outcomes. Learning a hospital’s core measure compliance helps patients understand how their hospital compares to its competitors. Core measure compliance shows how often a hospital provides the recommended treatment for these common conditions — hospitals with higher compliance often produce better patient outcomes.
Core measures focus on four sets of criteria:
- Research — providing patient care supported by strong scientific evidence
- Proximity — offering care with few “pit stops” between diagnosis and improved patient outcomes
- Accuracy — measuring the effectiveness and efficiency of care to help make positive outcomes more likely
- Adverse effects — reducing or eliminating the potential for negative side effects during care delivery
How Are We Doing?
Each of our hospitals reports our core measure compliance to The Joint Commission and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and we make our results available to the public:
Constant Improvement
Central Maine Healthcare has worked to improve core measure performance in several areas with remarkable results. Most recently, CMMC, Bridgton Hospital and Rumford Hospital have created multidisciplinary stroke and sepsis teams that include providers, nurses, pharmacists and more. The sepsis team has followed the recommendations of the Surviving Sepsis Campaign, a global initiative to reduce mortality related to sepsis — a life-threatening reaction to infection. Compliance percentages for the core measures for sepsis care have steadily increased since 2015. CMMC ranks at 77%, Bridgton Hospital at 87%, and Rumford Hospital at 66%. For comparison, the average score in the state of Maine is 62%, and the national average is only 59%.
Q&A With System Director of Rehabilitative and Orthopedic Services, Elizabeth Turcotte, MSN, RN-BC, ONC
Improving core measures in the treatment of stroke has been one area that CMH has made a priority. Our multidisciplinary stroke team regularly reviews scientific literature to identify and implement best practices in treating stroke quickly while also reviewing every case to determine if processes need to change.
“As stroke coordinator, I ensure that our team implements and follows the most up-to-date standards of stroke care,” says. Elizabeth Turcotte, MSN, RN-BC, ONC “Core measures ensure we provide the highest quality of care to promote positive outcomes. They provide a cohesive framework based on national recommendations, providing clear guidance and unifying patient care.”
Core measures also ensure consistency with medication, imaging, treatment and follow up, Turcotte adds.
“My goal is to ensure our Stroke Program functions at an optimal level,” she says. “I work with staff, outlying providers, patients and the community to provide education, quality improvement and resources for this potentially debilitating condition.”