Case Study: Oversight Program at Memorial Hermann

Memorial Hermann Healthcare System launched a physician management program in 2005 to reduce practice variability and improve physician performance. The Oversight program, as it was called, was rolled out to 78 physicians at 5 hospitals. The Memorial Hermann Oversight Program was initiated with the goal of reducing variability and improving physician utilization and quality. Dr. James Heisler, Medical Director for Memorial Hermann was tasked with setting up and managing the program. The program combined face-to-face meetings with Crimson's software to track physician performance.

As part of the program, the physicians met with Dr. Heisler and his team regularly to review their performance. Through the Oversight program, the performance of the physicians across 10,000 admissions was reviewed regularly.

While some physicians initially responded to the program with skepticism, they quickly changed their minds when the accuracy of the data and the true apples-to-apples peer comparisons became evident. Within a year, the system experienced net improvements in the performance of these Oversight-managed physicians, after discounting any improvements measured using by a control group not associated with the program. The improvements were in utilization: costs, ALOS, use of consultants; and quality: complications, readmissions, and core measure compliance. Some highlights:

• 6% increase in core measure adherence
• 24% reduction in readmissions
• 10% reduction in complications

The program also resulted in an estimated cost savings of $3.7 million, or $358 per patient admission.

Request a copy of the detailed white paper and learn more about the program's success at Memorial Hermann.