MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – WVU Medicine will present alongside Mayo Clinic this weekend at the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Annual Meeting, November 11-15 in Seattle, Washington.
Rebekah Matuga, Pharm.D., pharmacy clinical specialist with the WVU Medicine Center for Quality Outcomes, will be joined by Priya Sampathkumar, M.D., a Mayo Clinic infectious disease specialist, to discuss how academic medical centers can succeed with Medicare quality performance programs.
“We didn’t submit for a presentation; we were approached,” Frank Briggs, Pharm.D., WVU Medicine Chief Quality Officer, said. “The AAMC recognized WVU Medicine’s sustained results and our position as a leader in quality performance and requested that we participate in helping to lead other academic hospitals in quality improvement.”
While other institutions have lost upwards of $1 million annually in Medicare payments associated with the Hospital Acquired Conditions program, WVU Medicine has not received a single reduction associated with the program. In addition, WVU Medicine has reduced the expense associated with Medicare’s other programs (Value-Based Purchasing and Hospital Readmission Reduction Program) by $286,000 since last year.
“The most rewarding aspect of this opportunity is the ability to go beyond our health system and contribute to the success and improved quality of care for patients at hospitals across the country,” Dr. Matuga said. “The impact of collaborating with other nationally recognized health systems is significant and leads to better care for all our patients.”
The AAMC Annual Meeting gathers more than 4,000 medical school deans, teaching hospital CEOs, faculty, researchers, administrators, residents, and students from across the nation to discuss and expand the future of medical schools and teaching hospitals.
Session leaders include representatives from other nationally recognized top academic medical centers, such as Harvard University, Stanford University, Yale University, and Johns Hopkins University, as well as health organizations, such as the American Medical Association and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Matuga’s presentation was one of a number of concurrent sessions exploring key issues in the field of academic medicine. Other events included focused discussions, plenary sessions, poster sessions, and an Expo with more than 100 exhibitors.