Indiana hospitals are showing significant progress in improving patient care, according to the results of a three-year campaign to prevent harm and reduce readmissions for hospital patients across the nation.
From 2012-2014, 116 Indiana hospitals partnered with the Indiana Hospital Association in CMS' Partnership for Patients campaign, which was launched in 2012. With help from the American Hospital Association and Health Research & Educational Trust's Hospital Engagement Network, the goal was to make care safer by decreasing hospital-acquired conditions by 40 percent and reducing hospital readmissions by 20 percent, according to a news release.
Participating hospitals strived to improve care in 11 patient safety areas of focus, such as early elective deliveries and pressure ulcers. Staff also took part in educational meetings and trainings "to increase improvement capacity and provided data tracking and reporting for each topic to encourage further awareness and monitoring," the release reads.
Here are three findings from the results of the campaign.
1. Indiana hospitals prevented 4,690 harms, resulting in an estimated $22.3 million in healthcare cost savings during the three years of the initiative, according to IHA's Indiana Patient Safety Center. This includes a total of 1,254 unnecessary readmissions with a cost savings of $11 million. Also, $2 million was saved through the prevention of 110 venous thromboembolisms.
2. During the three-year period of the Partnership for Patients campaign, Indiana hospitals also made improvement as far as reducing early elective deliveries, which can put babies and mothers at risk. By prohibiting the scheduling of early elective deliveries before 39 weeks, early elective deliveries were reduced by 76 percent during the campaign, and more than 50 birthing hospitals were recognized by IHA and the March of Dimes for reducing early elective deliveries below 3 percent, according to IHA's Indiana Patient Safety Center.
3. The IHA's Indiana Patient Safety Center said a key driver of improvement has been the collaboration among Indiana's 11 regional patient safety coalitions. "Through coalition work, hospitals and other partners come together to address regional needs, share best practices and work on quality improvement projects together — setting aside competition to focus on their communities," the center said.
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