Cardiology quality collaborative celebrates 20 years of improvements – University of Michigan Health System News (press release)

An effort to improve quality of care and outcomes for heart patients is marking two decades of statewide collaboration.

The Blue Cross Blue Shield Cardiovascular Consortium, or BMC2, was created in 1997, and has since inspired additional initiatives in other specialty areas. The percutaneous coronary intervention registry started as a collaboration of five hospitals and has now expanded to include all non-federal hospitals in the state.

In the past 20 years, it has collected data from more than 400,000 PCI cases performed at 48 hospitals.

We are able to compare outcomes and processes across hospitals to openly explore what is working well and where institutions can learn from each other, says Hitinder Gurm, M.D., a Michigan Medicine interventional cardiologist who leads BMC2 and runs the PCI registry. Our goal is to create a culture of safety, reduce complications, improve appropriateness and share best practices so that all patients across the state will benefit.

Gurm, also associate chief of cardiovascular medicine at Michigan Medicines Frankel Cardiovascular Center and a member of U-Ms Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, said the positive competition improves outcomes at each facility. Results include a 41 percent decrease in post-procedure blood transfusions and 10 percent decrease in kidney complications.

Data from BMC2 has led to 65 published studies and a similar number of presentations at major medical meetings.

The BMC2 initiative has provided an incredibly strong foundation for hospitals throughout the state to collaborate and adopt best practices that improve the care and outcomes of PCI patients, says Simon Dixon, M.D., interventional cardiologist, chair of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine and Dorothy Susan Timmis endowed chair of cardiology at Beaumont Health. BMC2 has set a high bar for quality that is frankly the envy of other states throughout the U.S.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Blue Care Network fund the consortium as part of their Value Partnerships program.

Twenty years later, BMC2 is still going strong, still breaking new ground, and still finding new ways to optimize the outcomes and value of cardiac care, says David Share, M.D., MPH, Blue Cross senior vice president of Value Partnerships. The entire State of Michigan, and the community of cardiologists nationally, and the patients they serve, have much to celebrate in BMC2.

BMC2 has been recognized for its impact on quality by a number of organizations including the Michigan Health and Hospital Association, the Michigan chapter of the American College of Cardiology and BCBSA.

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Cardiology quality collaborative celebrates 20 years of improvements - University of Michigan Health System News (press release)