Raising the bar

In July 2002, Catholic Health West (CHW) established a policy that called for a uniform measurement and improvement of community benefit work that would preserve the flexibility of each facility to respond to the needs of its particular community. CHW's 40 member hospitals were asked to submit two community benefit goals that would be monitored for outcomes over the subsequent two years. The system's corporate office helped staff members at each facility determine the baseline for performance improvement, set realistic goals, establish measurable outcomes, and develop an effective intervention strategy for the health issue addressed. The goals, set forth in CHW's Community Benefit Policy and its Standards for Mission Integration, were included as part of each hospital president's annual performance evaluation. At the end of the third year of CHW's effort to apply greater scientific rigor to community benefit programming, more than 85 percent of its hospitals met or exceeded their stated goals.