Patient Safety Focus

Summit Attendees Get Called to Reduce HAIs and Spark Systematic Change in the Health Care System

Along with PatientSafetyFocus.com, over 400 people (about three-quarters of whom represent hospitals) attended Cardinal Health's first Chasing Zero Summit in Washington DC today.  According to their spokesperson, Cardinal's mission is to help improve health care and reduce costs.  Their aim for the Summit is to bring leaders together to share actionable steps to reduce hospital acquired infections (HAIs).

Pushing for systematic health care change

Director of the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institution and past administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Dr. Mark McClellan opened the 2-day event with a strong call to action:  Now is the time for providers and other health care leaders to lead the effort to move away from a system of runaway costs and use of health care resources, to one based on value - where quality and cost are no longer independent variables.  After stating that hospitals are making money from hospital-acquired infections, McClellan talked about CMS actions over the past few years to stop paying for certain "never events," or serious and costly errors in the provision of health care services that should never happen.  The list of no-pay events has grown to include 11 hospital acquired conditions today, including HAIs.  "Expect that list ot get longer," he intoned.  But, it's not enough simply to keep adding to the list.  McClellan drove home the point that we need to focus on a systematic effort to make our health care system sustainable.  "We're in a vicious cycle of delivering care that isn't high value."  Providers must work with patients to achieve the best care at the best cost for each individual. 

He turned last to three trends beginning to drive systematic health care change.  The first is the growth of activity on the measurement scene - from measuring health care outcomes, to cost and patient satisfaction.  Payment reform is the second trend:  from pay for reporting and pay for performance, to a shared savings model in which physicians are eligible for payments derived from savings from care management that's designed to anticipate patient needs, prevent chronic disease complications and avoidable hospitalizations, and improve quality.  The third trend is changes in benefit design such as tiering, where for instance, hospitals that demonstrate the best quality and cost are put into the top tier of hospitals.  Patients choosing these providers may get zero out-of-pocket expenses.

IHI announces two-day seminar focused on improving collaboration as means for improving patient safety

"Teamwork doesn’t always come naturally to health care professionals.  Our cultures too often emphasize autonomy and working within professional boundaries. But the new rules of health care focus on better cooperation and collaboration among and between clinicians."

The above statement is from IHI's two-day seminar--occurring June 10th and June 11th--titled "Delivering Safe and Optimal Care Through Effective Teamwork and Communication". The seminar provides participants strategies and tools for training teams and overseeing the implementation of effective team communication.

Insofar as outcomes, the seminar enables attendees to:

• Implement practical strategies to create and maintain team communication
• Implement measures to sustain evidence-based teamwork and communication
• Utilize practical tools and resources that can be applied in your organization
• Understand best practices in the field including, tools, structures, and strategies
• Train others on how to implement teamwork and communication

Designed for organization leaders, patient safety officers, physicians, nurses and risk manager, learn more here.

IHI Seminar Promotes The "Triple Aim" of Health, Care and Costs

On June 23 - June 24 in Washington, D.C., the Institute of Healthcare Improvement (IHI) will host a seminar focused on the "Triple Aim" of excellent health, ideal care and controlled costs.

According to IHI, "These are the concurrent goals of health care systems that serve populations. Many health care organizations are focused on only one or two of these goals, and may deliver results on one dimension to the detriment of the others. Only by addressing all three can we truly optimize health care resources for a population and achieve broad-based, lasting, transformational results. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) refers to these three goals, pursued simultaneously, as the Triple Aim."

A group spanning C-Suite Executives, Policy Makers, Directors of Quality or Improvement, Physicians and more will learn a framework for accomplishing the Triple Aim, determine methods for assessing their own per capita costs, develop ideas for testable changes and understand how to set time lines for testing their ideas.

You can also listen to the seminar conference call by visiting this page. More information located here.

IHI Offers 2-Day Program for Hospital Leadership and Board Members

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) announced a two-day seminar designed for leaders who hold ultimate responsibility for quality and patient safety.

According to the Program Overview:

Led by national experts in governance and quality—James Conway, MS, James Reinertsen, MD, and James Orlikoff—it will provide practical tools on topics board members and senior leaders are committed to in principle yet often unable to put into action.

Leaders responsible for driving quality and patient safety endeavors should consider attending, including both hospital leadership—CEO, CMO, CNO and COO—and any board members interested in quality improvement.

Ideal for forward-thinking organizations that already have quality as a prominent focal point and could benefit from further hands-on guidance, the program’s agenda includes:

• What the best boards do and how they do it
• Action planning for your own board
• The board meeting: approving the annual quality plan
• How the best boards manage conversations — with each other and with physicians
• The power of patient and family engagement
• Sentinel event meeting: dealing with a quality crisis

To learn more and enroll, click here.