Madison, WI: For more than ten years, a group of clinicians have collaborated to improve outcomes and lower costs for moms and babies in Vermont and New Hampshire. OBNET, a web-based obstetrical registry, and the Northern New England Perinatal Quality Improvement Network (NNEPQIN) have moved the improvement needle on some of perinatal care’s greatest challenges and are now moving to advance further by implementing Forward Health Group’s PopulationManager®, an advanced health care measurement tool.
Dr. Michele Lauria, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center Professor of OB/Gyn & Radiology and a Founding Board Member for OBNET, said, “This is terrific news. Our collaboration with Forward Health Group will make OBNET available on a national basis. This will allow us to expand the scope for perinatal clinical quality improvement to a much broader community of providers that in turn will lead to improved outcomes for moms and babies across the country.”
The recipe for OBNET’s and NNEPQIN’s success is simple: improvement = evidence-based standards + ongoing data collection + shared culture of quality improvement. With PopulationManager, OBNET will offer its users unprecedented access to patient data (with appropriate security and HIPAA compliance), giving providers the ability to view populations at any level—individual, clinic and regional, thus helping unit managers and OB Chiefs to better follow outcomes. OBNET & NNEPQIN can then identify areas of concern and facilitate regional collaboration to address problems.
Michael Barbouche, Founder/CEO of Forward Health Group, said, “We couldn’t be happier. FHG’s purpose is to drive improvement in health care quality, cost and patient outcomes, and that lines up beautifully with OBNET. It doesn’t get any more important than helping improve the health of moms and babies.”
OBNET is a web-based delivery registry that has been used in northern New England to help hospitals benchmark against each other for specific obstetric outcomes and identify centers of excellence. OBNET works closely with the Northern New England Perinatal Quality Improvement Program (NNEPQIN), a group of thirty-plus member hospitals and other health care organizations, whose mission is to improve perinatal care for women and children throughout the region. Visit http://www.nnepqin.org/ for more information.
Forward Health Group, Inc. is a leading-edge health care measurement company. FHG turns fragmented clinical and administrative health care data, stored in multiple disparate systems, into actionable information that can be used to drive population health improvement. PopulationManager 3.0 has been certified by ONC for Meaningful Use. Visit http://www.forwardhealthgroup.com
