Mike Noble
Fletcher Allen Public Relations
(802) 847-2886

BURLINGTON VT - Fletcher Allen Health Care has made a number of its health care quality measures available to the public through a new section on its Web site, launched today.

The quality information can be accessed at www.fletcherallen.org by clicking on the medallion labeled, "Click here for Quality of Care Reports."

Included are some of the measures that are publicly available in the hospital reports required under Vermont's Act 53 legislation.  Act 53, in part, requires hospitals to publicly report specific quality measures.

The Web site includes additional quality measures for birthing, cardiology, general surgery, heart surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, orthopaedics, neurology, pneumonia care, and pediatrics at Vermont Children's Hospital.  Each section includes data on clinical information, length of stay, patient satisfaction, and numbers of cases seen (volume).

"I am excited about this new quality initiative. We want patients and their families to have access to this information. This Web site provides an opportunity for us to mark our progress in continuous improvement," said Dr. Estes, president and chief executive officer of Fletcher Allen Health Care. "The measures show that we do many things well. Also, like every organization, some measures show that we have room for improvement and we are working to achieve this."

The site uses a combination of publicly available quality data from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, and from the federal government's Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.  Additional data comes from a national hospital patient satisfaction survey firm, a national academic health center benchmarking organization, and from Fletcher Allen's internal quality data collection program.  National benchmarks for comparison are included where available.

"This is a work in progress," noted Dr. Estes. "We have started with publicly available information, other measures available to us, and some of our own quality measures. Over time we plan to add other quality measures, explanations about the quality measurement process, and updated information that will let the public see progress on quality improvement projects."