Partnership for Patients Initiative Improves Hospital Safety

Improving patient safety was the goal when the Department of Health and Human Services launched its Partnership for Patients initiative in 2011. With a one billion dollar budget from the Affordable Care Act, the program was termed a game-changer by its administrators. HHS made 26 Hospital Engagement Networks, representing 3,700 hospitals, its main vehicles to address such issues as obstetrical harm and healthcare-associated infections. The HENs include large groups, such as Premier, VHA and the American Hospital Association-affiliated Health Research & Educational Trust; state hospital associations, such as the Minnesota Hospital Association; and large health systems, such as 37-hospital Dignity Health.

Now, three years later, the initial scorecard for the program is in, and it’s a mixed record. Improvements have been reported, such as VHA’s progress in the areas of elective deliveries and ventilator-associated pneumonia which it calls “spectacular.” But some have criticized the program’s lack of standardized quality measures that make it difficult to compare results across large data sets from multiple providers. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which administers the program, replies that flexible standards were initially necessary to encourage a large number of hospitals to join the initiative, and that common metrics are being adopted over time. The bottom line? Several data sources, including the 2013 progress report for HHS' National Quality Strategy, show reductions in harm over the past two years. Improvements in patient safety are a major step toward better outcomes in American healthcare.

I'm John Howell for 3BL Media.