HEALTH BENCHMARKS/MAUI MEMORIAL MED. CENT. ENTER AGREEMENT

Health Benchmarks Inc, a national leader in the development and support of health information services for the drug industry, employer groups and managed care organizations, announced a consulting agreement with Maui Memorial Medical Center in Hawaii to develop a method of measuring hospital quality and physician performance. The 196-bed hospital is the only acute-care facility on the island.

A key feature of the agreement is the creation of an electronic data warehouse of patient information that will enable Health Benchmarks to develop performance reports of clinical outcome indicators and other quality measures.

This agreement calls for the development of inpatient indices measuring clinical care, satisfaction and resource consumption. Physician performance influencing quality measures such as lengths of stay, complications and readmission rates will be linked in the reports.

"The computerization of patient encounters and the aggregation of that information with physician performance will help the medical center better understand where to take action in future quality improvement initiatives," said Kathleen Cain, Chief Financial Officer of Maui Memorial Medical Center.

"With the inclusion of inpatient and physician encounters in an electronic data bank, we will begin to get an up-to-date picture of how care is being delivered from admission to discharge and afterwards," said Jonathan P. Weisul, M.D., FACEP, Medical Director of Maui Memorial. "This undertaking would not be possible if we were forced to rely on hand-tabulated data."

"Health Benchmarks assists health care organizations in planning and allocating health resources cost effectively through evidence-based programs," said Antonio Legorreta, M.D., president and Chief Executive Officer of Health Benchmarks. "This agreement reflects our interest in providing such services to leading inpatient facilities."

In addition to quality assessment, Health Benchmarks is involved in other quality improvement initiatives. These include, for example, linking financial incentive programs to quality performance ratings. These ratings are based on patient satisfaction, access to care, chronic disease management, acute care, and preventive care indicators.

Health Benchmarks also is developing Internet applications to streamline and accelerate the process of gathering patient information and other health informatics data. These interactive tools and health-related Internet applications will be accessible through its Web site at www.healthbenchmarks.com.

Other Web-enabled services Health Benchmarks offers to health care organizations and pharmaceutical companies include:

• disease management programs
• performance-based contracting administration
• clinical trials online data collection
• clinical trials patient and investigator recruitment
• on-line health risk appraisals
• on-line physician and patient satisfaction surveys
• pharmacoeconomic and outcome studies
• hospital and physician report cards

With headquarters in Los Angeles, Health Benchmarks provides quality and measurement reporting products and services to health care organizations throughout the country. Its clients include the subsidiary health plans of Foundation Health Systems Inc, among the largest publicly traded managed health care companies, which provide health benefits to approximately 5.2 million people in 16 states. Health Benchmarks also contracts with other health plans and several Fortune 500 pharmaceutical companies.

Contact Health Benchmarks, Carolyn A. Kashian, 818-676-6827, carolyn.kashian@healthbenchmarks.com.