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February 10, 2012
News Releases
Partnership
for Patients initiative aims to reduce preventable conditions, improve care
Parrish Medical Center is
pleased to announce that it has agreed to participate in the Hospital
Engagement Network (HEN) led by VHA Inc., the national healthcare network.
As part of its Partnership for Patients initiative, the
Center for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid
Innovation (CMMI) named 26 Hospital Engagement Networks to comprise a
nationwide public-private collaboration focused on reducing preventable harm by
40 percent and preventable readmissions by 20 percent in the next three years.
CMS/CMMI will fund the Hospital Engagement Networks with $218 million available
under the Affordable Care Act.
“We want to do everything
possible to ensure that all our patients continue to receive the very best
hospital care and the very best outcomes possible,” said Edwin Loftin, vice
president of nursing at Parrish Medical Center. “Our participation in this
Hospital Engagement Network is one way we can be confident that we will improve
patient safety, achieve those objectives and provide the highest quality care.”
By participating in VHA’s
Hospital Engagement Network, Parrish Medical Center joins hundreds of other
hospitals around the country that will leverage VHA’s industry-leading clinical
quality improvement tools, including the Leading Practice Portal™, Leading
Practice Blueprints™, proprietary Rapid Adoption Networks™ and demonstrated
expertise in creating and supporting peer-to-peer learning networks.
Hospitals today need to improve
quality and patient safety or face the risk of incurring financial penalties
imposed by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS). Achieving the objectives
of the Partnership for Patients would save more than 60,000 lives annually,
decrease hospital injuries by 1.8 million and allow more than 1.6 million
patients to recover from illness without suffering from preventable
complications requiring re-hospitalization.
Loftin said Parrish Medical
Center began working with VHA this month (January) to develop the timetable and
other requirements of the work needed to address the patient safety domains on
which they will focus. Next, VHA will utilize its Rapid Adoption Networks™
(RAN), the company’s proprietary framework to help address the most pressing
needs—in this case, reducing hospital-acquired conditions and preventable
readmissions—and provide Parrish Medical Center the skills to rapidly realize
practice changes within their organization.
This step-by-step methodology
focuses on identifying and understanding specific obstacles to achieving
improvements, as well as how to surmount them.
“For nearly 35 years, VHA has
successfully designed, developed and implemented many clinical improvement
collaboratives,” said Colleen Risk, VHA’s executive vice president, member networks.
“Our participation in the Partnership for Patients initiative allows the
company to put this expertise to critical use as it works, industry-wide, to
achieve the Partnership’s ambitious safety objectives.”
Said Loftin, “We look forward to
participating with VHA in this historic initiative and appreciate the
leadership and support from CMS and CMMI to help hospitals nationwide
continually improve the care we give our patients.”
About VHA
VHA Inc. is network of not-for-profit hospitals that work together to
improve their clinical and economic performance. VHA includes more than
1,400 not-for-profit hospitals and 25,500+ non-acute health care
organizations. Based in Irving, Texas, VHA delivers supply chain
management services to reduce the cost of health care and creates
regional and national networks to help members solve key clinical and
operational challenges. For more visit http://www.vha.com
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