(Adopted January 2019)
The majority of health care payments are for number of services provided rather than quality of care or per person or per unit of time. This workgroup develops recommendations to tie provider payment to an entire episode of care including potential complications resulting from poor care and has focused on total knee and total hip replacement, lumbar fusion, and coronary artery bypass surgery.
The Lumbar Fusion Surgical Bundle and Warranty has been implemented at Virginia Mason Franciscan Health Medical Center as part of the Health Care Authority’s Centers of Excellence programs. These Centers of Excellence were able to leverage the Bree standards they implemented to secure other value based contracts with self-insured entities such as Contigo Health and Walmart.
See the article below for an example of UW Medicines evaluation of the Bree recommended use of multidisciplinary care teams to improve assessments of patient need and readiness for spinal fusion surgery.
Yanamandala V, Kim Y, Buchlak Q, Wright A, Babington J, Friedman AS, Mecklenburg RS, Farrokhi F, Leveque JC, Sethi R. Multidisciplinary Evaluation Leads to the Decreased Use of Lumbar Spine Fusion: An Observational Cohort Pilot Study. Spine (Phila PA 1976). Sept 2017; 47(17):E1016-E1023.
For more information on outcomes for our Spinal Surgery Report please visit our Spine Care Outcomes Assessment Program page.
