When
you talk with your surgeon and insurance specialists, you can ask how
many procedures like yours have been performed and what the outcomes
are. Make sure your surgeons are board-certified and your surgical
facility is certified and accredited. Ask about infection rates and
any other concerns you have. Also, talk to friends and family about
their experiences.
Additionally, you can turn to the increasing number of independent companies who report on health care and quality:
Wisconsin Checkpoint
- This site tracks hospital records documenting such important measures
as correct administration of medications, infection rates, pain
control, and much more. (Note, this site does not yet track surgery
centers. We have provided some comparative data on MSC below).
Wisconsin Pricepoint
- This site tracks providers' typical retail prices for different
procedures. Savvy consumers may be surprised at the variance in
pricing in a single city.
Insurance providers have
extensive material on their websites, tracking physicians' performance
as well as other providers' quality and price data. Be sure to check
your own insurer's site for data to help you assess your options.
We
are proud of the quality ratings we've earned from our patient care.
For example, here are several key measures from MSC medical records
that can be compared to other facilities on wicheckpoint.org:
Antibotics administered on time:
100%
Hospital transfers due to complications:
-*
Time out performed:
100%
Wrong site:
0%
*We experienced 3 transfers out of 1400 cases performed.
We are especially concerned about the "Time Out" component. This
is an important tool in our on-going quality assurance and continuous
quality improvement strategies. The "Time Out" takes place in the
operating room just before the procedure begins. All activity comes to
a halt while the physician, nurses, and technicians run through a
series of checkpoints such as confirming the identification of the
patient, assuring that there is a signed consent form, checking the
correct site for the procedure and others appropriate to the specific
procedure. Additionally, immediately following the procedure, we
execute a "post op huddle" to review what went well, what could be
improved, and any chances that should be made. In some instances, our
surgeons have suggested an improvement in a morning procedure that
we've been able to test in an afternoon procedure and transformed into
a permanent procedural improvement the next day.
Because of our
record, insurers have recently pursued us to be among their preferred
in-network providers and we are happy to be included as a preferred
in-network provider for so many major insurers serving our county.
