The Impact of Hospitalists on Value-Based Purchasing Program Scores

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Health Services Research
• Value-Based Care

Background:

• The Affordable Care Act's Hospital Value-Based Purchasing (HVBP) program incentivizes hospitals to improve care quality and efficiency.
• The hospitalist model is an emerging strategy for inpatient care delivery, aiming to enhance coordination and reduce costs.
• Traditional inpatient care models can suffer from fragmented communication and care coordination.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of hospitalist utilization on hospital performance scores within the fiscal year 2016 HVBP program.
• To analyze the relationship between the percentage of hospitalists and performance across the four HVBP domains: clinical process, patient experience, outcome, and efficiency.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from the 2015 HVBP database, Medicare Final Rule Standardizing File, and American Hospital Association database.
• Employed multivariate regression analysis using Stata 12 to assess the relationship between hospitalist employment and HVBP scores.

Main Results:

• Hospitals with a higher percentage of hospitalists demonstrated improvements in their overall total performance scores in the HVBP program.
• Significant positive associations were observed between hospitalist presence and scores in patient experience of care (PEOC), outcome, and efficiency domains.

Conclusions:

• The findings suggest that hospitalists contribute to improved hospital performance, particularly in enhancing care coordination and efficiency.
• The hospitalist model appears to mitigate fragmentation in care delivery, leading to better patient experience and outcomes.
• Increased adoption of hospitalists may be a viable strategy for hospitals seeking to optimize their performance in value-based purchasing initiatives.