Bridge is Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s initiative to support clinically effective patient care while adapting to population health and value-based care delivery models.
Bridge's core goal is better patient care through innovation and adaptation. This initiative increases the ability of both VUMC and the Vanderbilt Health Affiliated Network to deliver care in a more cohesive manner, rather than a series of individual encounters. In turn, this engages patients in making decisions and empowers them to pursue better health and overall well-being.
As we continue to build toward a better future centered around high quality, evidence based care, Bridge efforts will be operationalized in phases.
Phase 1
The initial phase of Bridge is designed to keep clinicians informed about their progress toward meeting specific patient care quality measures as healthcare transitions to a larger focus on health promotion and clinical effectiveness as well as value-based reimbursement models.
Pay-for-Performance (P4P) is the shift away from fee for service to a compensation model that rewards better quality outcomes. Through Phase 1, Bridge equips clinicians and practices with tools to accurately document and report quality metrics for Adult Primary Care, Pediatrics, and Women’s Health.
Each quality metric in Bridge is designed to prevent major health problems such as:
- Diabetes complications
- Colon cancer
- Breast cancer
- Adverse medication interactions
- Pneumonia
- Influenza
Application
The Bridge goal is a simpler and more efficient process for clinicians to measure and report value-based care data. Bridge will equip clinicians with tools and support resources to make it easy to record the high-quality work we are already doing so that we are compensated appropriately. As new quality measures are rolled out, the Bridge team will communicate clearly about what needs to change at the clinical level.
Background
Payers are changing their relationships with clinicians. Going forward, the way America pays for health care will be built on a foundation of quality bonuses, penalties, and shared savings. Health systems such as VUMC will adopt advanced contract structures with payers that assume more accountability for quality outcomes. For clinicians, care delivery will span multiple settings and time periods and will incorporate more of a patient's needs than a single care episode can cover.
Bridge was designed to unify all quality metrics VUMC is responsible for into a single, seamless approach that ensures we are properly credited for the evidence-based care we currently deliver. The initiative has been formed with input from the Office of Population Health, the Clinical Affairs Committee, Strategic and Operations Analytics, and Quality, Safety, and Risk Prevention (QSRP). Going forward, it will be shaped and steered by feedback from VUMC clinicians