QHi Benchmarking Tool
In response to multiple requests for benchmarking tools geared towards small rural hospitals, the Colorado Rural Health Center (CRHC) is excited to offer the Quality Health Indicators (QHi) benchmarking tool! An initiative of the Kansas Rural Health Options Project, QHi allows rural hospitals up to 50 beds to benchmark against self-defined peer groups to learn best practices and set targets for improvement.  Currently, over 185 small rural hospitals in thirteen states are participating in QHi.

CRHC has contracted with QHi to offer this tool Colorado’s rural hospitals.  For Critical Access Hospitals, CRHC is able to subsidize the cost of participation through the Medicare Rural Flexibility Grant. Participation is available to Colorado’s non-Critical Access Hospitals for an annual fee of $200.  A PowerPoint presentation about QHi is available HERE.  Some of the advantages of the QHi Benchmarking Tool include:

• Created specifically for small, rural hospitals
• Web-based, user-friendly
• Can track data over time
• CART data can be queried and directly placed into QHi
• Cost Effective

• Multiple states participating for multi-state comparison
• Measures are user-driven
• Options to create customized reports and balanced scorecards

In addition, participants also have access to:

• Free webinars including training review sessions that include QHi update information and educational presentations on using the data to enhance quality initiatives
• QHi Educational Materials developed to promote implementation of quality initiatives within QHi participating facilities
• Access to the Resource Library, a catalogue of resource documents
• Additionally, because QHi is user-driven, participants have the opportunity to participate in Advisory Committee Calls to determine new measures, evaluate existing measures and clarify definitions.

There is no minimum data submission requirement to participate in QHi, although QHi encourages hospitals to submit the 8 specific “core” measures as listed in the QHi PowerPoint presentation. Additionally, we have set up a 6-measure Colorado data set to facilitate statewide comparison based on interest from multiple Colorado hospitals. The Colorado data set includes:

• Unassisted Patient Falls
• Patient Overall Rating of Care
• Healthcare Acquired Infections (HAI)
• ER Response Times
• % of AMI Receiving ECGs
• Readmissions within 30 days

To see a list of all available QHi measures and data elements, click HERE.
For more information or to sign up to participate in QHi, please email jd@coruralhealth.org.