Hospitals in pursuit of excellence

Hospitals on the Path to Accountable Care: Highlights from a 2011 National Survey of Hospital Readiness to Participate in an Accountable Care Organization

Although the Affordable Care Act encourages the establishment of accountable care organizations, it is not clear that health care providers are ready to participate in ACOs or will be able to develop the capabilities to do so. In the first study of its kind, HRET profiled U.S. hospitals and health systems for their readiness to be accountable for the continuum of patient care.

The project team surveyed system leaders about their organizations' ability to: 1) provide integrated primary, acute, and post-acute care services; 2) enable communication and clinical information exchange among all providers involved in a patient's care; and 3) manage financial risk, receive bundled payment, and calculate and distribute shared savings to providers. The survey was sent to all U.S. hospitals and health systems in April 2011.