Humana Committed to Quality Improvement

Humana is an industry leader in promoting patient safety and quality care on behalf of its members. In fact, Humana’s mission is to help guide members to make informed decisions based on available information.

In order to accomplish this mission, Humana helps guide consumers in making value-based health care purchasing decisions, based on provider adherence to evidence-based measures that lead to improved patient outcomes. Humana uses measures from leading organizations in both the public and private sectors, such as The Leapfrog Group and Bridges to Excellence (BTE).

The Leapfrog Group is a coalition of more than 170 large businesses that represents more than one-third of the privately insured people in the United States. The Leapfrog Group and its members work to initiate breakthrough improvements in the safety, quality and affordability of health care for Americans. One of the ways the group does this is through the publication of data from its Hospital Quality and Safety Surveys, which use evidence-based measures and various safety standards to rate the quality of hospitals across the country. Humana encourages all hospitals to respond to the survey at www.leapfroggroup.org.

Humana is also a supporter of Bridges to Excellence (BTE), a multistate coalition developed by employers, health care services researchers and other industry experts. BTE’s mission is to encourage significant leaps in the quality of care by recognizing and rewarding physicians who demonstrate a high level of performance and patient-centered care in diabetes care, heart/stroke care and patient-care management systems.

Humana is one of a handful of health plans to license BTE programs in order to make this program available to interested employers and its members. Humana currently licenses and administers the BTE program in Atlanta, Cincinnati and Louisville to help recognize and reward physicians who demonstrate excellence in diabetic care. For more information on BTE Physician Recognition Programs, visit www.bridgestoexcellence.org.

Humana also has started recognition and reward programs aimed at improving patient care in the hospital environment. One of those programs provides Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., with nursing education grants in recognition of its commitment and achievement in promoting patient safety and quality improvement. Now in its fourth year, the program awarded three scholarships to nursing students in 2006.

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