Quality in Maine Hospitals

Hospitals provide outstanding care to the people of Maine. Maine offers higher quality hospital care on average than any other state in the country, according to data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital Compare Web site.

In 2003, a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, using similar data, ranked the quality of care provided by Maine’s hospitals as 3^rd in the country since 1998.  In 2012, Maine hospitals ranked best in the country, according to a report from the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which used many of the same measures from Hospital Compare, along with claims and other data not posted by CMS. 

In early 2012, the Commonwealth Fund evaluated 306 regions of the country on 43 measures of health system performance and grouped them into quarters.  Northern and Southern Maine both ranked in the top quarter, making Maine one of just 8 states with statewide performance in the top tier. Both the Bangor and the Portland regions ranked third in the nation in the Overall Performance on Prevention and Treatment, which included inpatient hospital quality, hospital 30-day mortality, patient-centered hospital care, discharge instructions, nursing home quality, home health quality, adult preventive care and diabetic preventive care.

In late 2012,  Medicare announced that 79 percent of Maine hospitals would receive a bonus for providing high quality care--a higher percentage of hospitals than any other state.  On average, Maine hospitals saw their payments rise by 0.23 percent.

In May 2013, the Leapfrog Group released its Hospital Safety Scores. Eighty percent of Maine’s hospitals earned A’s on the report, making Maine the state with the highest average score.
Although they are already leaders in providing high-quality health care, Maine’s hospitals still strive to improve.  As the science of medicine evolves, so does the science of health care quality.  The field is advancing rapidly and hospitals routinely re-evaluate how they structure, measure and monitor quality management.
 
Maine hospitals also led the nation in measuring and reporting the quality of health care services.  As early evidence of our commitment to transparency and accountability, MHA was among the first organizations in the country to routinely and voluntarily publicly release hospital-specific quality data, including patient survey results.
 
MHA discontinued its quality reporting after so many others started posting data, but in 2009, the MHA Board of Directors clearly restated its commitment to quality improvement in its five year strategic plan:  In Pursuit of Excellence:  The Hospital Commitment.  The document outlines a concrete substantive action plan around defined goals that will, when achieved, make genuine progress toward better health care.  Click on the In Pursuit tab to the right for the plan and the data showing statewide progress toward attaining the quality and wellness goals.
 
For more information, please contact Sandra Parker.