Bon Secours may expand successful bundled payment program

Bon Secours Health System in Richmond, Virginia, may expand its trial bundled payment program for total joint replacement, according to Hospitals & Health Networks.

"About two years ago when healthcare reform came in, we had an opportunity to work with the pilot program," John Turner, vice president of orthopedics, told H&HN in a video interview. "We see this as the future, so it's really either get on the train or it's going to leave you ... behind."

The program fits with the need to reduce costs and increase quality of care, Turner said, and in the program's seven months, results were improving on a qualitative level, although the system is still working to improve the quantitative results.

"We're all working toward best practices for all of our benefit, where before we lived in our silos," said Administrative Director Lauren McDevitt.

Bon Secours may expand into bundles for other procedures in January 2015. Turner said they'd target procedures with high-volume that have high-variable costs.

The program focuses on communication after discharge, whether with the patient at home, a rehab facility or a skilled nursing facility. That way, they are in touch throughout the patient's care continuum, McDevitt said, meaning "all of us knowing at all times where that patient is and where they're going."

It's "exciting" to follow patients' care throughout their recovery and not just the 2.7 days they are in the hospital, McDevitt added.

To learn more:
- watch the interview