NEWS

VHA Chooses Quantros to Enhance Its Tomorrow's Work Force Initiative

Participating Hospitals Can Also Meet JCAHO Staffing Effectiveness Requirements

VHA Inc., a nationwide network of 2,200 leading community-owned health care organizations and their affiliated physicians, has reached an agreement with Quantros, a leading provider of real-time Web-based accreditation, compliance and performance improvement solutions for the healthcare industry. The agreement allows access to Quantros' Work Force measurement tool to enhance VHA's strategic member initiative, Tomorrow's Work Force. The agreement was announced today at VHA's annual Leadership Conference.

Tomorrow's Work Force is a collaborative among VHA members featuring interactive learning, knowledge transfer, face-to-face meetings, and individual onsite consultations. Participation in Tomorrow's Work Force helps VHA members achieve the Employer of ChoiceT certification in their local markets by focusing on enhancing leadership, culture, job design and human resources processes.

Hospitals participating in VHA's Tomorrow's Workforce will use the Quantros Web-based platform to collect, trend, and correlate data for Tomorrow's Work Force criteria as well as the initial 21 human resource, quality, and patient safety indicators established by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. As a result, organizations participating in the project will be able to address the new Joint Commission staffing effectiveness survey requirements using the same Web-based toolset.

"Because the work force issue is one of the most significant challenges facing health care organizations and VHA is committed to helping members in this area, we have chosen VHA's annual Leadership Conference to announce this agreement. We are excited to be a part of helping hospitals to better understand optimal patient care by using Quantros' unique tools," said Tom Leahy, vice president of client services for Quantros, an exhibitor at the conference.

"The use of the Quantros platform allows VHA to greatly extend the benefits of Tomorrow's Work Force beyond the initial scope and reach of the program without significantly increasing the burden on participants," said Joanne Clavelle, director, VHA's Consulting Services. "Organizations participating in this initiative will be able to effectively and quantitatively balance performance along staffing and quality indicators and meet the needs of the Joint Commission's requirements with a single, easy-to-use solution. This represents a great benefit for many health care organizations."

In addition, participating hospitals will be able to compare their performance to the benchmarks developed by Tomorrow's Work Force participants as well as from Quantros' proprietary staffing effectiveness database. Initially, 50 VHA member organizations will begin using the Quantros platform as part of the Tomorrow's Workforce initiative, with more expected to participate in 2003.

Staffing shortages and decreased employee retention affect everything from an organization's ability to provide quality care to its ability to maintain a favorable bond rating," said Rick Roycroft, senior vice president of VHA's Consulting Services. "The addition of the Quantros platform to the Tomorrow's Work Force initiative will add significant value by giving participants a tool they can use to better understand how staffing affects their quality of care."

About Quantros

Founded in 1996, Quantros provides real-time knowledge creation solutions for benchmarking, patient safety, accreditation and compliance, and outcomes monitoring for leading healthcare providers, payers, and pharmaceutical manufacturers. Quantros' web delivered applications provide a standard platform for automating resource intensive manual processes. Through a variety of direct sales and vendor partners, nearly 700 hospitals are licensed to use Quantros' web-based technology solutions.

About VHA

VHA Inc. is a nationwide network of 2,200 leading community-owned health care organizations and their affiliated physicians. Based in Irving, Texas, with 18 local offices across the U.S., VHA comprises nearly 25 percent of the nation's community hospitals, including many of the nation's largest and most respected institutions. VHA offers member organizations access to products and services that will help them improve financial and clinical performance and achieve market success. As a cooperative, VHA distributes income annually to members based on their participation. In January 2003, for the fourth year in a row, VHA was named one of the "100 Best Companies to Work For" by Fortune.