What's accreditation?
To gain accreditation, medical programs must meet certain quality standards. Accreditation is typically provided by independent organizations that visit health systems to evaluate their adherence to these standards. Virtua invites a number of accrediting bodies to review our services. Learn about Virtua's accreditations and some recent awards.
What does it mean when a physician is board certified?
Board certification is an indication that a physician is highly trained. Board certification means that a physician has met the demanding requirements of a voluntary independent organization, which focuses on a particular specialty. These organizations have established training and testing criteria to evaluate the physician. Physicians who are undergoing this evaluation process are called board eligible.
For a physician to become a member of the medical staffs of Virtua, there are several requirements. One is that the doctor must be board certified in the area in which they are requesting privileges within five years of first being eligible to sit for the board.
To learn whether a physician is board certified or about his/her medical education and training, check the physician locator or call 1-888-VIRTUA-3 (1-888-847-8823).
What's evidence based medicine?
Evidence based medicine is when a review of outcomes studies demonstrates the best practices in an area of medicine. One example is the research on the positive results when patients demonstrate the symptoms of a heart attack and are given appropriate cardiac drugs and treated with appropriate measures.
Virtua is committed to quality outcomes, encouraging compliance with quality standards and quality improvement. To this end, we have agreed with one major insurer to make a part of Virtua's reimbursement contingent on achieving quality outcomes as measured by three distinct metrics. Virtua is the first health system in South Jersey to agree to this type of quality incentive program with this insurer. Three percentage points of Virtua's rate increase are conditional on reaching the quality indicators all related to acute myocardial infarctions, the speed with which cardiac drugs are administered and the pharmaceutical regimen that these patients receive upon discharge.
We believe that future contracts will include quality measurements and payments tied to achieving them.