Montana Outcomes Project

The Montana Outcomes Project

Outstanding Program Awards

Each year the Montana Outcomes Project recognizes individual programs from MACVPR that are performing “above the line”. The “line” in reference is the regional mean for each indicator being tracked by the outcomes project. Every Spring we aggregate each programs previous 4 quarters of data and find the program that has the most individual indicators that exceed the region wide average. We have the award broken down into 2 categories – one for large rehab programs and one for small programs. Previous winners include:

Large

2011 – St. Patrick’s ::  Missoula
2010 – Benefis Healthcare :: Great Falls
2010 – St. Patrick’s :: Missoula

Small

2011 – Barrett Hospital :: Dillon, MT
2010 – Sheridan Memorial :: Sheridan, WY

This is the fourth consecutive year that St. Patrick’s won the large hospital category exceeding the regional mean in 10 of the 11 quality indicators. The small program winner was Barrett Hospital from Dillon. Barrett exceeded the regional mean in 8 of the 11 quality indicators. The winners were recognized at MACVPR’s annual conference which was held at St. Peter’s in Helena this past April. Program staff members were presented a plaque and a letter was sent to each hospital’s CEO so their great work could be shared with the hospitals they represent. Congratulations St. Pat’s and Barrett Hospital!

The Montana Outcomes Project

The Montana Outcomes Project started in the summer of 2005 with a collaboration between the Montana Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation (MACVPR) and the Montana Cardiovascular Health Program (CVH).  The intent of the project is to provide a complete out-of-the-box outcomes program, provide data support to participating programs, which includes the benchmarking of indicators, and provide feedback to each program so they in turn can compare their individual data to that of the entire group.  The overall goal is to use the feedback to drive quality improvement (QI) projects that result in improved patient care.

INDICATORS

The indicator selection process focused on 2 specific goals:
1) The indicators needed to be relevant and easy to administer
2) The indicators needed to be complete enough to fulfill AACVPR certification/re-certification criteria
(Click HERE to Indicators)

FEEDBACK

Participating programs submit their de-identified data to the CVH Program for analysis on a quarterly basis.  The data is aggregated with means generated for patient demographics and for each indicator.  Each program is then provided with feedback that has their individual data plotted against the regional mean.
(Click HERE to Feedback)

QUALITY IMPROVEMENT

Based on the data from the Outcomes Project, the CVH Program and MACVPR have collaborated to provide two statewide QI projects.  The first was a train-the-trainer session on patient education fat reduction strategies, and the second was related to improved functional capacity gains for rehab patients.  Both projects were very successful with well over 20 programs taking part.

GROWTH

The Outcomes Project continues to grow and become more visible on the national stage. As of 2011, we have over 130 programs from 15 states reporting data with an additional 15 programs – including 5 more states – in the early stages of data collection. In January of 2011, our quarter sample size was over 3,200 patients. The database now consists of over 24,000 patients.
Due to the rapid growth and the fact that the project includes programs from over 15 states, we have formed an Outcomes Workgroup. The Workgroup was formed to make sure that the Outcomes Project stays on the cutting edge. The Outcomes Workgroup consists of a dedicated group of cardiac rehab professionals and includes:

Cathy Lisowski – Montana and Wyoming
Jeff Redekopp – North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota
Beth Dole – Michigan
Chuck Kitchen – At Large
Chris Wherity – California, Oregon and Washington

The Outcomes Workgroup recently recommended some changes regarding some of the indicators being tracked. The first was the addition of antiplatelet usage. The second is that we will be tracking smoking cessation or Quit Line referral utilization. Other minor changes were also instituted. In addition, the Workgroup updated the electronic manual to assist programs just starting out.

NATIONAL EXPOSURE

As of 2011, Mike McNamara has presented the Montana Outcomes project at various state and national cardiac rehab conferences including:

- UPCRA – North and South Dakota
- Michigan
- Arizona
- Washington
- Montana & Wyoming
- Oregon
- Arizona
- National Conference – AACVPR 2008 in Indianapolis

Outcomes Posters & Literature

Posters were presented at AACVPR’s annual conference in Salt Lake City in 2007 and Indianapolis in 2008 highlighting the Outcomes Project.
Download 2007 Poster | Download 2008 Poster

A journal article was also published in the Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention in November of 2009. Download the JCRP article.

There will also be posters presented at this year’s annual conference in Milwaukee, WI October 7-9, 2010. Download 2010 Heart Failure Outcomes | Download 2010 AACVPR Outcomes

Contact Information

If you’d like more information on the Montana Outcomes Project, please contact:
Mike McNamara, MS FAACVPR
Project Coordinator
Cardiovascular Health Program
P.O. Box 202951
Helena, MT 59620
(406) 444-9170
mmcnamara@mt.gov