Providence Joins the California Joint Registry
October 31, 2014
Providence Health & Services, Southern California, has joined the prestigious California Joint Replacement Registry. The registry provides important information for several stakeholders, including providers who are given tools to analyze their performances and make quality improvements. Moreover, the registry assists health insurance groups and patients in seeking high-value providers.
The registry was established in 2010 by the California HealthCare Foundation in partnership with the Pacific Business Group on Health and the California Orthopaedic Association. With more than 90,000 joint replacement procedures happening annually—requiring more than $8.5 billion in annual hospital and surgeon charges—joint replacement surgeries have a significant impact on Medicare and private payer resources. The number of such surgeries is expected to rise over the next two decades prompting health care experts nationwide to call for a constant, transparent assessment of the devices, treatment protocols, surgical approaches and patient factors that influence outcomes.
The registry will help providers statewide fulfill that mission. The registry collects detailed case information on approximately 140 data elements related to performance, such as patient demographics and aspects of clinical and surgical care. The registry is one of the few in the nation that collects and reports feedback obtained directly from patients concerning outcomes of their hip and knee replacement surgeries.