Salem Township Hospital was presented with an award for being the Top Performer in Quality for their 23-hospital accountable care organization during a Wednesday afternoon ceremony.
The presentation was made by the Executive Director of the Illinois Rural Community Care Organization Todd Searls. His group was hired to work with the hospitals to improve quality of care.
Searls said, “We want to get a message out as ACOs that the things providers, physicians, and clinical staff are being asked to do today are not outside of what they normally do, which is great patient care, but now there are extra incentives. If they meet certain measures, the hospital will be rewarded for providing that excellent care, and that’s what this is. They did so well that as an ACO we ended up benefiting. The money that comes to us as an ACO, we immediately give back to our membership based on their performance.
Searls notes under the Medicare program, poor performing hospitals can be paid less compensation.
Hospital President CEO Jim Timpe explains how the extra payments will be used.
“It helps us provide things for the community that we normally couldn’t afford,” Timpe said. “It also allows us to provide that additional charity care. We’ve provided almost $4.5 million in charity care year to date, and it helps us to keep providing those services.”
Timpe commended the hospital employees for the hard work that made the award possible.
