Peer Review Network

The North West Kansas Health Alliance, in a networking relationship with a neighboring network, has established a peer review network. A long standing challenge for and criticism of small, rural hospitals is that inability to establish strong mechanisms for medical peer review. When a hospital only has a few physicians and these physicians are reliant on one another for clinical and on-call support, it is difficult to have these physicians act in a peer review capacity for one another. The strain created by this dilemma is not necessarily an indication of their commitment or lack there of for quality patient care. It is more commonly a fear of consequence for those fragile systems that assure physician coverage for rural hospitals together.

Through the Kansas Joint Peer Review Network, a number of physicians from rural hospitals in the two participating networks have agreed to provide peer review support. These physicians receive blinded medical records that need peer review and provide professional, medical input as to opportunities to have improved the care delivered. Critical to the success of this program is the understanding that the goal is not to point out bad care. The goal is to identify opportunities to improve care in an environment where the rapid growth of technology changes the standards of patient care regularly.