Gerber Memorial Hospital

Spectrum Health Gerber Memorial Rewarded for Quality

As Medicare switches to a value-based purchasing process, Spectrum Health Gerber Memorial finds itself among the highest rankings available. Medicare links about $1 billion in its payments to hospital for quality of care measures. Hospitals can have their payments either increased or reduced, depending on how they score in the Medicare Value-Based Purchasing program, which rewards hospitals that do better in observing and performing standards of care and in patient satisfaction surveys. Underperforming hospitals receive payment penalties.

The payments are one part of quality improvement efforts, which the government hopes will eventually reduce costs. An analysis of 304 hospital markets (by Kaiser Health News) showed wide variation across the nation. In 16 markets every hospital received a bonus, while in 20 other markets every hospital received a penalty.

Spectrum Health Gerber Memorial was one of the top five hospitals in the West Michigan area, as reported by Medicare.

“We take a great deal of pride in the safe, high-quality care we provide our patients,” said Randy Stasik, President of Spectrum Health Gerber Memorial. “Our employees are committed to creating an experience for our patients that centers upon their healthcare needs and their safety. As we work – continuously – to improve the care we give, our scores will rise even higher.”

In this first year of the Medicare quality incentive payment program, the maximum amount any hospital could gain or lose is 1% of its regular Medicare payments. Medicare is rewarding 1,557 hospitals and penalizing 1,427 others during this fiscal year.

“We have doctors, nurses and support staff members who all contributed to us receiving such high marks and the incentive payments,” Stasik noted. “It is through their dedication to our mission – of improving the health of the communities we serve – that equates to this recognition of our organization.”