Q&A: What’s a flagship organization, related to CMS reporting?
answered this question.
Q: When looking at the Program for Evaluating Payment Patterns Electronic Report (PEPPER) and comparing regional, state, nation, etc., what does a “flagship"” organization mean?
A: A flagship organization would be a specialty hospital or a hospital that specializes in a patient population. For example, a flagship organization would be a facility that treats stroke patients or cardiac patients, in contrast to a small community hospital that would stabilize a patient and possibly transfer them to a more appropriate facility, depending on the condition being treated.
It would be reasonable for a flagship organization to be a high outlier for a diagnosis such as a stroke if they treat a larger population of these types of patients. If a smaller community hospital was a high outlier for the same diagnosis, there could be documentation or treatment concern.
To learn more about PEPPER and how to use the information contained in it for CDI efforts, check out this article in the November/December 2017 edition of the CDI Journal.
Editor’s Note: Sharme Brodie, RN, CCDS, CDI education specialist and CDI Boot Camp instructor for HCPro in Middleton, Massachusetts, answered this question. For information, contact her at sbrodie@hcpro.com. For information regarding CDI Boot Camps, click here.