The CRIMSON Initiative - the First Physician Performance Data Management Platform Developed By Physicians For Physicians - is Now Working With Over 200 Hospitals and Over 25,000 Doctors

WASHINGTON, Sept 09, 2009 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- ABCO | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- The Advisory Board Company's CRIMSON Initiative welcomes Baptist Health South Florida, a multi-hospital system based in Coral Gables, to a 100-strong cohort of health systems, including Baylor Health Care System, Cleveland Clinic, Intermountain Health Care, Inc., Memorial Hermann Healthcare System, OSF Healthcare System and Robert Wood Johnson Health System. These member health systems use the web-based CRIMSON physician profiling application to increase physician performance data transparency and reduce care variance.

The CRIMSON Initiative has helped members achieve total cost savings measured in the tens of millions of dollars, and is now at the forefront of supporting elite hospitals in the pursuit of Clinical Integration.

CRIMSON Software, Inc. was founded in 2003 in Austin, Texas in close collaboration with early hospital partners who helped refine the tool for maximum physician appeal, with the goal of improving physician performance through automating the compilation and presentation of physician performance data. One key initial collaborator, Houston-based Memorial Hermann Healthcare System, a National Quality Forum national quality award winner specifically cited for the degree to which they have embraced transparency in performance to date with their medical staff, realized savings of $3.7 million, or $358 per admission within 18 months of using CRIMSON.

"One of the most powerful and important capabilities of the CRIMSON software is its ability to drill down within seconds to data at the individual patient level. We have been using it in one-on-one physician reviews and we've had a tremendous impact on our utilization," said Dr. James Heisler, Medical Director of Memorial Hermann Healthcare System.

Since its acquisition by Washington, DC-based Advisory Board Company in 2008, The CRIMSON Initiative's web-based physician profiling application, including best-practice performance improvement, now supports over 200 individual hospitals representing 25,000+ physician users by demonstrating how sharing timely and rigorous performance data with physicians can yield significant cost savings and quality gains.

"There's a tremendous need for hospitals to work more closely with their physicians to reduce practice variability and ensure adherence with care standards. Yet while information about hospital costs and quality is increasingly transparent, until CRIMSON individual physician performance has largely been a black box," said Advisory Board CEO Robert Musslewhite.

The Advisory Board's CRIMSON Initiative offers a multifaceted approach to physician performance improvement, combining best-in-class performance monitoring technology with dedicated utilization support, best practice research in care delivery and physician enfranchisement, and membership in a national peer collaborative.

At the program's heart is a technological platform that pulls together physician data from repositories across the hospital, including patient billing, cost accounting, clinical information systems, data reporting software, and care management databases. CRIMSON organizes this information into an intuitive, web-based dashboard that offers acuity-adjusted data and performance comparisons placed in statistical context.

"If I had the ear of President Obama, I would tell him that we need two things, a national fishing holiday and the CRIMSON application. CRIMSON provides the strategic pillars for moving a company forward. CRIMSON is a diamond in the rough," said Jeff A. Nelson, Chief Executive Officer, Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA.

In its new case study, Unlocking Physician Performance Data in an Era of Reform, the CRIMSON Initiative highlights cost savings and quality gains at four member hospitals. Highlights include:

    --  Targeted Outlier Engagement: Trinity-Mother Frances Hospitals and
        Clinics leverages the CRIMSON application to identify individual
        physicians or departments with costs significantly higher than peers.
        Improvement of practice inefficiencies yields immediate $650,000 savings
        from two surgeons alone.
    --  Reducing Diagnosis-Specific Variation: Monmouth Medical Center uses
        CRIMSON to identify length-of-stay (LOS) and cost outliers for
        high-volume medical diagnoses. For pneumonia and congestive heart
        failure patients LOS declined by 0.5 days in just one month; average
        direct costs declined by 7 percent, a decrease of $373 per case.
    --  Expediting Throughput: St. Rita's Medical Center leverages CRIMSON
        to identify DRGs with high LOS to focus on identifying areas for process
        improvement.  Avoidable days were reduced by 2,000 across six months
        with estimated cost savings of $200 per patient totaling $800,000 per
        year.

    --  Improving Core Measures Compliance: St. Mary Medical Center uses CRIMSON
        to identify core measures with low compliance rates. In one year core
        measures with compliance in 90th percentile rose from 30 to 93 percent;
        this improvement allowed the hospital to capture 100 percent of $500,000
        pay-for-performance (P4P) incentive.

To request a copy of the case study or for more information on the CRIMSON Initiative, please email programinquiries@advisory.com. To learn about career opportunities on the Austin, Texas based CRIMSON team, please visit the Advisory Board Company Careers Immediate Opportunities site: http://corporate-advisory.icims.com/jobs/intro.

About The Advisory Board Company:

The Advisory Board Company is a leading provider of comprehensive performance improvement services to the health care and education sectors -- including operational best practices and insights, business intelligence and analytic tools, management training, unbiased technology evaluation, and consulting support. Drawing on nearly three decades of experience, The Advisory Board Company is privileged to serve a membership of more than 2,800 organizations -- including preeminent hospitals, health systems and universities -- all sharing a charter "above commerce," a commitment to best-practice standards, and an unyielding insistence on continual improvement.

www.advisoryboardcompany.com

SOURCE The Advisory Board Company

http://www.advisoryboardcompany.com

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