Indianapolis, IN – The Indiana Hospital Association (IHA), as a part of the American Hospital Association/Health Research & Educational Trust Hospital Engagement Network, has been selected as one of 17 national, regional or state hospital associations and health system organizations to continue efforts in reducing preventable hospital-acquired conditions and readmissions. Through the Partnership for Patients initiative – a nationwide public-private collaboration that began in 2011 to reduce preventable hospital-acquired conditions by 40 percent and 30-day readmissions by 20 percent – IHA will participate in a second round of hospital engagement networks to continue working to improve patient care in the hospital setting. 

“The Indiana Hospital Association is honored to be leading quality improvement efforts in Indiana. Working closely with hospitals, doctors, nurses and other health care providers, we will support efforts to keep Indiana Hoosiers safe, improve care and reduce costs,” said Doug Leonard, president of IHA. “When it comes to patient safety, Indiana hospitals don’t compete with one another – they collaborate to share best practices, address regional needs and work together on quality improvements for the sake of their patients and the communities they serve.”

Since the launch of the Partnership for Patients, the vast majority of U.S. hospitals and many other stakeholders have joined the collaborative effort and delivered results. The Department of Health and Human Services has estimated that 50,000 fewer patients died in hospitals and approximately $12 billion in health care costs were saved as a result of a reduction in hospital-acquired conditions from 2010 to 2013. Nationally, patient safety is improving, resulting in 1.3 million adverse events and infections avoided in hospitals during that time period. This translates to a 17 percent decline in hospital-acquired conditions over the three-year period.

The Partnership for Patients and the hospital engagement networks are one part of an overall framework established by the Affordable Care Act to deliver better care and spend dollars more wisely. Initiatives like the Partnership for Patients, Accountable Care Organizations, Quality Improvement Organizations and others have helped reduce hospital readmissions in Medicare patients by nearly 8 percent between January 2012 and December 2013 – translating into 150,000 fewer readmissions – in addition to the quality improvements mentioned above. 

“We have made significant progress in keeping patients safe and we are focused on accelerating improvement efforts through collaboration and reliable implementation of best practices,” said Patrick Conway, M.D., CMS acting principal deputy administrator and chief medical officer. “This second round of hospital engagement networks will allow us to continue to improve health care safety across the nation.”

Round two of the hospital engagement networks will continue to work to develop learning collaboratives for hospitals and provide a wide array of initiatives and activities to improve patient safety. They will be required to conduct intensive training programs to teach and support hospitals in making patient care safer, provide technical assistance to hospitals so that hospitals can achieve quality measurement goals and establish, implement and improve the system to track and monitor hospital progress in meeting the Partnership for Patients’ quality improvement goals. The activities of the hospital engagement networks will be closely monitored by CMS to ensure that they are generating results and improving patient safety.

The 17 organizations (listed in alphabetical order) receiving contracts in round two of the hospital engagement networks are:

• American Hospital Association/Health Research & Educational Trust (including Indiana Hospital Association);
  
• Ascension Health;
  
• Carolinas HealthCare System;
  
• Dignity Health;
  
• Healthcare Association of New York State;
  
• Health Research Education Trust of New Jersey;
  
• Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania;
  
• Iowa Healthcare Collaborative;
  
• LifePoint Health;
  
• Michigan Health and Hospital Association Health Foundation;
  
• Minnesota Hospital Association;
  
• Ohio Children’s Hospital Solutions for Patient Safety;
  
• Ohio Hospital Association;
  
• Premier Inc.;
  
• Tennessee Hospital Association;
  
• VHA-UHC Alliance NewCo Inc.; and
  
• Washington State Hospital Association.

For more information on the Partnership for Patients and the hospital engagement networks, visit partnershipforpatients.cms.gov.​