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Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Connecticut hospitals and physicians have launched a patient safety initiative, which is part of a multimillion-dollar Anthem project in New England, The Hartford Courant reported.
The Clinical Quality Program, which Anthem detailed recently, involves seven health care providers in Connecticut, including St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center and the Hartford Physician Hospital Organization, all in Hartford.
The program at hospitals aims reduce adverse drug reactions and interactions, and infections that are acquired while hospitalized. The program is also promoting use of "intensivists" -- physicians specially trained for intensive care units who coordinate care. The goal of the program is to reduce intensive care admissions, lengths of stay and deaths.
The program in physician practices focuses on improving health and lowering the cost of treating patients with diabetes or asthma.
Under a three-year contract, the hospitals could receive financial incentives from Anthem if certain quality improvements are met. "By improving health outcomes over the long term, you will prove that quality costs less," Eleanor Seiler, MD, senior medical director of Anthem, told the newspaper.
The newspaper said that the Clinical Quality Program was introduced in New Hampshire in late 2002, and is also being organized in Maine. Anthem hopes to expand the pilot programs to more providers over time.
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