N.J. Health Care Quality Institute, ArborMetrix partnership lets consumers compare hospital cost, quality

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Comparing hospitals on cost and quality of common clinical procedures so that consumers can make more informed choices is the goal of a new partnership between the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute and Michigan-based ArborMetrix.The partnership, announced Monday, will allow the institute to use the ArborMetrix analytics platform to compare hospital data from New Jersey, Philadelphia and New York City.  The procedures under consideration for measurement include joint replacement, spine surgery, bariatric surgery, coronary artery bypass surgery, and coronary angioplasty and stents.

This will enable health care providers to analyze and determine areas of variation in patient care delivery, the institute said. Payers and employers will also gain a clearer picture of how care is delivered. The data will then be provided publicly to consumers who make the ultimate decision on their care selections.  

“Consumers, purchasers, and other health care stakeholders across New Jersey look to the Quality Institute to help them make real and measurable improvements to our state’s health care system,” said Linda J. Schwimmer, vice president of the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute. “ArborMetrix’s platform will provide a thought- provoking, phased approach to a new health care performance measurement system that will reduce unnecessary variation and increase transparency in both cost and quality of care for the citizens of New Jersey. Our goal is to ultimately give health care providers, employers and consumers actionable information   about the quality and cost of health care across the State. Armed with that information, they’ll make better informed decisions and drive improvements in quality and cost containment.”

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“As a large-scale purchaser of health care, it is critical that I get the best value in terms of quality and cost for my members,” said George Laufenberg, administrative manager of the Northeast Regional Council of Carpenters and a member of the Quality Institute’s Board of Directors. “We are hopeful that through this exciting new initiative, consumers will soon be able to get to a value equation in health care.”  

As part of this initiative, ArborMetrix is providing analytics to identify variations that will enable the institute to validate data at the hospital level to share among purchasers, employers, hospitals and consumers.

The ArborMetrix platform will integrate and analyze data from several public and private sources, not only in New Jersey, but also from New York City and Philadelphia, in order to determine variation within cost and actual payments.   

“With this program, the Quality Institute will have the platform necessary to evaluate opportunities to provide better patient care across the specialty and acute care setting,” said Brett Furst, chief executive of ArborMetrix.

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