CHARLOTTE, NC - A pay-for-performance project has resulted in a 15.8 percent boost in quality over three years at 250 hospitals across the country, according to the Premier healthcare alliance. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services awarded nearly $25 million under the joint initiative with Premier.

CMS awarded incentive payments of more than $7 million to 112 top-performing hospitals in Year 3.

Sacred Heart Medical Center, in Spokane, Wash., received the highest quality incentive payment, $385,342, for achieving top performance in four of the five clinical areas in the third year.

The conditions are:

• acute myocardial infarction (AMI/heart attack);

• coronary artery bypass graft;

• heart failure;

• pneumonia; and

• hip and knee replacement.