Two federal government agencies charged with reporting patient safety and quality of care data have recognized the 88 hospitals participating in the Tennessee Hospital Association’s (THA) Hospital Improvement and Innovation Network (HIIN) for saving lives and billions of healthcare dollars.
As part of a nationwide effort, the facilities helped prevent 20,500 hospital deaths and saved $7.7 billion in healthcare costs from 2014 to 2017, according to new data released by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
AHRQ’s preliminary analysis estimates hospital-acquired conditions (HACs) were reduced by 910,000 from 2014 to 2017. The estimated rate of HACs dropped 13 percent.
Under THA’s leadership, the 88 facilities are participants in the CMS Partnership for Patients’ HIIN under the American Hospital Association’s (AHA) Health Research Education Trust (HRET).
“We are extremely pleased and appreciate the efforts of our Tennessee Center for Patient Safety team in its efforts to help our hospitals improve their patient outcomes. Tennessee hospitals are working together through this collaborative program to share best practices and continue to strive to make their facilities the safest places for care,” said Craig A. Becker, president and CEO of the Tennessee Hospital Association.
“Tennesseans should be very comfortable knowing their local hospitals are working hard to provide the best possible care,” said Becker.
Dr. Audrey Gregory, market CEO for Saint Francis Healthcare, said, “As a participant in THA’s Hospital Improvement and Innovation Network (HIIN), our quality and clinical teams across Saint Francis Healthcare, which includes Saint Francis Hospital-Memphis and Saint Francis Hospital-Bartlett, have access to national resources, local expertise and evidence-based best practices to ensure we provide the safest care for our patients. We value working with other hospitals across the state to share strategies and ideas to continuously improve care for our community.”
Regional One Health and multiple locations of Baptist Memorial Hospital were also included as participating Tennessee hospitals.
See the full report online, including a list of participants, at http://bit.ly/AHRQ-Scorecard. See the accompanying graphic online at http://bit.ly/TN-Hospitals-trend.
