October 10, 2006
Palo Alto Medical Foundation Ranks Among Top Performers for Preventive Care, Patient Satisfaction and Use of Information Technology
The Palo Alto Medical Foundation's (PAMF) Palo Alto Medical Clinic and Camino Medical Group were recently ranked among the top-performing medical groups by the Integrated Healthcare Association (IHA), an independent and highly respected health care leadership group.
IHA's third annual Pay for Performance (P4P) report card shows that PAMF patients are receiving among the best health care in the entire state.
"As an organization, we take great pride in our ability to deliver high-quality care and consistently meet the needs of our patients," said David Druker, M.D., president and CEO of PAMF. "We appreciate the recognition of our efforts by IHA and will continually look for ways to provide the best medical care in a supportive, friendly environment."
Medical groups participating in the IHA program are scored on a series of quality benchmarks including preventive care and chronic care management, patient satisfaction, and use of information technology to support patient management and care.
Out of 228 medical groups participating in the program, nearly one-third of the top medical groups in Northern California are part of Sutter Health, a not-for-profit system of physician organizations and hospitals in Northern California of which PAMF is an affiliate.
"Sutter Health is committed to openly sharing information about the quality of health care provided by our system and our affiliates are proud that they were among the first health care providers in California to participate in these types of report cards," said Gordon Hunt, M.D., chief medical officer for Sutter Health. "We are always looking for ways to enhance the quality of care we provide to patients. This recognition not only demonstrates the success of our ongoing efforts but encourages us to work even harder to advance quality across our network."
IHA's P4P program is the largest in the country to provide medical groups with incentive payments based upon performance against quality benchmarks.
The P4P ratings are available at: www.iha.org.
For more information about PAMF and the Palo Alto Medical Clinic, visit www.pamf.org. For more information about Camino Medical Group, visit www.caminomedical.org.
The Palo Alto Medical Foundation for Health Care, Research and Education is a not-for-profit health care organization that is a pioneer in both multispecialty group practice of medicine and outpatient medicine. The foundation has four health care divisions: the Palo Alto Division, the Camino Division, the Santa Cruz Division and the Palomares Division. The Palo Alto Division, staffed by 290 physicians of the Palo Alto Medical Clinic, has provided a full range of care for Peninsula residents since it was founded in 1930. It operates clinics in Fremont, Los Altos, Palo Alto, Portola Valley, Redwood City and Redwood Shores. PAMF is part of the Sutter Health family of not-for-profit physician organizations and hospitals that share resources and expertise to advance health care quality. Serving more than 100 communities in Northern California, Sutter Health is a regional leader in cardiac care as well as care of women and children, and is a pioneer in advanced patient safety technology. For more information, visit www.pamf.org.
Camino Medical Group (CMG) is dedicated to providing high quality health care to its 200,000 Bay Area patients at 15 medical care sites. The group has more than 240 primary care and specialist physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants.
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