Patient Quality Alliance

About the Patient Quality Alliance

The Patient Quality Alliance is an innovative healthcare team dedicated to utilizing the medical resources of the community to bring higher quality medical care, enhanced medical value, improved medical outcomes, reduced medical costs, and increased collaboration between the men, women, and children of Southeastern Idaho and their medical providers. Patient Quality Alliance (PQA) is a physician-led clinically integrated network of more than 650 highly-skilled physicians and providers, including those at Portneuf Medical Center and independent practices throughout Bannock and Bingham counties, who are committed to providing high-quality medical care at an affordable price. Traditionally, healthcare providers worked in isolation, treating patients without feedback data to support their methodology.  The goal of PQA is to redirect such practices using data gathered across its ever-growing network to establish evidence-based best practice guidelines across the healthcare continuum. But PQA’s vision doesn’t stop there. Even with protocols for best practices in place, patients may face transportation or accessibility issues that prevent them from receiving critical primary care. Readily accessible admissions data identifies patients who go to emergency rooms for medical conditions that should be handled by primary care providers, so PQA can now reach out and help these patients access more-appropriate, less-costly medical care. Additionally, the data-driven approach reduces wasteful, duplicated services. A patient with low back problems may see multiple providers for treatment. If providers don’t have access to each other’s patient records, expensive tests, such as magnetic resonance imaging scans, may be reordered unnecessarily when they have just been performed elsewhere. This runs up medical costs with no benefit to the patient. Patient Quality Alliance is defining what quality means in healthcare. Physicians are coming together with Portneuf Health Partners to take on the challenges of out-of-control healthcare inflation and unnecessary poor quality. Physicians in the PQA network are committed to improving the quality of care by holding themselves accountable to provide optimal outcomes. We understand and know that healthcare has gotten too expensive, too wasteful, less patient-friendly, and is often not evidence based. Patient Quality Alliance (PQA) seeks to curb uncontrolled costs and wasteful duplication of services resulting from fee-for-service health care practices and to establish a provider network comprised of all types and specialties across the entire continuum of care. Our goal is to transform healthcare toward value. Clinically integrated networks like PQA attack these problems by establishing goals and objectively measuring progress towards those goals using a data-driven approach. Data allows each provider to compare outcome statistics against similar data collected through the network and, in turn, analyze their practice’s efficiency and efficacy and make meaningful improvements in the way care is delivered. How will Patient Quality Alliance Benefit Me? By receiving care from a PQA provider, you will have access to better, more coordinated medical care and the best treatment possible, right here in your own community. Information regarding your care will be more efficiently shared among providers due to PQA’s integrated electronic medical records systems. This will help reduce unnecessary tests and duplication of services while still safeguarding your privacy. PQA providers will collaborate with each other to ensure that you receive the right care at the right time, and only when you need it. They will also strive to engage you in the process through shared decision-making. What Role will my Primary Care Provider Play? Your primary care provider (PCP) will work with you to make sure you understand your treatment options and help you navigate your medical care. By staying informed of your overall health, your PCP will provide treatment when appropriate, order the right tests, refer you to specialists when necessary, and help you to make informed decisions. Your PCP is there to ensure you are on the path to wellness and good quality of life. Targeting Waste and Unnecessary CostPortneuf Quality Alliance - Doc Image The Affordable Care Act shifts the way in which providers are reimbursed for medical care from traditional fee-for-service models, where providers are paid for ordering services that may or may not effectively treat the condition. Fee-for-service healthcare pays providers for doing more, whether the tests and interventions help or not. There are a lot of well-intended treatments that, when based on objective evidence, may not produce benefits for patients. PQA’s clinically integrated network gives associated providers the connective tools to be accountable and only provide the most effective medical care. By making data compiled by insurance companies available to providers within PQA’s network, best practice protocols can be established and adopted, enhancing the quality of care for patients. For more information about Patient Quality Alliance, a list of PQA providers, and/or how you can benefit visit Patient Quality Alliance.