The Ohio Hospital Association (OHA) will host Ohio hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies and federal healthcare officials on Friday, March 23, in Columbus to begin the implementation of the Partnership for Patients program, a national public-private collaboration to improve the quality, safety and affordability of health care for all Americans.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) allocated $218 million to 26 state, regional, national or hospital system organizations to help them achieve new resources and support to make health care safer and less costly by targeting and reducing preventable injuries and complications from healthcare-acquired conditions.
In December 2011, HHS awarded OHA and the Ohio Patient Safety Institute (OPSI) with one of the 26 hospital engagement contracts nationwide, including a second Ohio-based contract given to the Ohio Children’s Hospitals’ Solutions for Patient Safety.
The contract from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Partnership for Patients initiative is for two years, with an optional third year depending on initial success. As a member of the national Hospital Engagement Network, OHA and OPSI will be responsible for identifying solutions already implemented by hospitals and systems in Ohio. Total potential value of the OHA contract is $5.3 million.
“We’ve been collaborating among hospitals regionally for several years now and have seen great improvements,” said Mary Yost, vice president of public affairs for OHA. “So with this contract, it will be an opportunity for us to collaborate statewide across a large variety of focus areas. It’s an expansion and continuation of what we’ve already been doing.”
Yost said OHA and OPSI will work with 69 member hospitals as well as nursing homes and home health agencies throughout the state to improve patient care in 11 clinical areas, ranging from reducing readmissions and pressure ulcers to helping patients fight infections from multidrug-resistant organisms and preventing central line-associated blood stream infections.
“We’ll be able to identify which institutions have the best practices and what methods and ideas seem to work and which ones don’t,” said Yost. “We’ll share all of this information as a way to improve all of our hospitals. We’ll be dedicating specific staff members to help with this data collection and analysis.”
The contract allows hospitals and other providers throughout Ohio to participate in a multidrug-resistant organism collaborative and several different learning networks. The Partnership for Patients work is under the supervision of OHA Director of Quality Improvement, Rosalie Weakland.
Funds from the contract will help cover costs of collecting and analyzing data to help providers identify and adopt best practices to meet objectives of reducing preventable harm, said Yost.
“We are honored to lead this extraordinary initiative to help hospitals with patient care,” said David Engler, OHA vice president of Quality Institute, in a written statement. “Our goal is to reduce inpatient harm by 40 percent and readmissions by 20 percent by the end of 2013.”
Presentations on Friday will be provided by representatives from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, OhioHealth, Veterans Ambulatory Care Center, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and OHA’s Quality Institute.
Follow HFN associate editor Kelsey Brimmer on Twitter @kbrimmerhfn.