Achieving the Triple Aim: Leveraging and Learning from Top Performers to Accelerate Improvements

Our hospital was an early participant in the Premier Quest Collaborative focused on improving quality, efficiency, safety and transparency. By benchmarking with organizations with results better than our own, we were able to make rapid cycle improvements that resulted in improved outcomes. By aligning organizational goals and objectives, cascading them to staff and leveraging continuous quality improvement plus methodologies, lives were saved with a nearly 30 percent improvement in the mortality rate index, improvement in quality of care in accordance with evidence-based medicine by more than 10 percent, and inpatient costs were reduced by more than 25 percent.

This case study is part of the Illinois Hospital Association's annual quality awards. Each year, IHA recognizes and celebrates the achievements of Illinois hospitals in continually improving and transforming health care in the state. These hospitals are improving health by striving to achieve the Triple Aim--improving the patient experience of care (including quality and satisfaction); improving the health of populations; and reducing the per capita cost of health care.

Award recipients achieve measurable and meaningful progress in providing care that is:

• Safe
• Timely
• Effective
• Efficient
• Equitable
• Patient-centered

(The Institute of Medicine's six aims for improvement.)