Baystate Named Premier Alliance Excellence Award Winner

SPRINGFIELD — Baystate Health, an academic health system in Springfield, has received the 2017 Premier Alliance Excellence Award from Premier Inc., a leading healthcare improvement company.

Premier selected Baystate out of its nationwide alliance of approximately 3,750 U.S. hospitals and more than 130,000 other provider organizations. The award is given to healthcare organizations that exemplify the highest level of industry innovation and advancements in delivering high-quality, cost-effective care.

“An industry-leader, Baystate is never satisfied and always looking for ways they can improve,” said Susan DeVore, president and CEO, Premier. “From becoming one of the first health systems to publish their outcomes, to creating their own health plan and establishing new value-based payment models, Baystate has set an industry standard. And they’re sharing these best practices across the Premier alliance to help others do the same. We’re honored to present them with the 2017 Premier Alliance Excellence Award.”

Serving nearly 1 million people throughout western New England, Baystate is an integrated health system that has been providing skilled and compassionate healthcare in the Pioneer Valley for more than 140 years. Baystate is also a founding member of Premier and has worked in partnership with the organization for more than 30 years to achieve continuous improvements in healthcare costs and quality.

“We focus on our mission every day — to improve the health of the people in our communities with quality and compassion,” said Mark Keroack, MD, MPH, president and CEO of Baystate and chair of the board of directors for Health New England. “Congratulations to each and every Baystate team member for keeping this focus while creating room to innovate. We are proud to be recognized for these accomplishments, which are the result of both our own efforts, as well as the collaboration among Premier alliance members to identify opportunities, define new care models and share best practices.”

In partnership with Premier, Baystate has saved more than $30 million in supply chain costs over the past five years, lowered mortality by 10{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} in the QUEST^® quality improvement collaborative, reduced readmission rates to less than the national average through Premier’s Hospital Improvement Innovation Network, and achieved a savings of more than $1 million through Premier’s bundled payment collaborative.

“Over the years, Baystate has partnered with Premier to build a quality improvement infrastructure to include principles of high reliability and efficiency. In doing so, we have achieved lower than expected mortality rates and reductions in complications,” said Dr. Evan Benjamin, senior vice president for Quality and Population Health at Baystate. He went on to note that with Premier’s help, Baystate also created the first safety reporting system in the country, as well as a performance improvement accountability infrastructure to advance healthcare quality.