Industry Insight

Public Hospitals Nationwide Join Patient Safety Initiative

Kaiser Permanente, together with the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF) and the National Association of Public Hospitals (NAPH) and Health Systems, has announced the Patient Safety Initiative at America’s Public Hospitals. This two-year program is designed to enhance patient safety programs at public hospitals to ensure safe, high-quality care for vulnerable and low-income populations that depend on publicly supported healthcare institutions for medical care.

Kaiser Permanente contributed $718,010 to fund 85 hospitals for the two-year program. Forty-two hospitals were selected for phase 1 in 2009, with the remaining 43 to be selected for phase 2 in 2010. There is potential to expand this program to all 140 NAPH member hospitals.

The goals of the initiative are as follows:

• position public hospitals on the leading edge of patient safety and quality care;
• establish a consistent and shared pool of patient safety knowledge, tool sets, and techniques;
• develop a community of public hospital clinicians, patient safety and quality leaders, and hospital executives committed to this initiative;
• garner measurable results in patient safety practices; and
• create patient and community programs fostering communication that engages, informs, and builds continued confidence in care and the public hospital system.

Participating hospitals represent diverse geographic locations and include single hospitals and larger systems, as well as those with nascent patient safety and quality efforts and those with more advanced programs.

Key focus areas for this program include enhancing the culture and leadership, infrastructure and measurement capabilities, and metrics for evidence in improving patient safety and outcomes at each of the participating facilities. Participants will have access to multiple resources, including membership in the NPSF Stand Up for Patient Safety program, NPSF Patient Safety Congress registrations, health literacy and communications tools, measurement and analysis tools, and opportunities to apply for Patient Safety Leadership Fellowships.

— Source: Kaiser Permanente

The Leapfrog Group Releases Its 2009 Top Hospitals List

Thirty-four urban, eight children’s, and three rural hospitals have been named 2009 Leapfrog Top Hospitals, based on results from The Leapfrog Hospital Survey.
New this year, Leapfrog recognizes a new category: Top Rural Hospitals. The award winners are as follows:

• Polk Medical Center in Cedartown, Ga.;
• Stephens Memorial Hospital in Norway, Me.; and
• Waldo County General Hospital in Belfast, Me.

This year’s top urban hospitals are as follows:

• Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix;
• California Pacific Medical Center, Davies Campus in San Francisco;
• California Pacific Medical Center, California Campus in San Francisco;
• California Pacific Medical Center, Pacific Campus in San Francisco;
• Kaiser Permanente Anaheim Medical Center in Anaheim, Calif.;
• Kaiser Permanente Baldwin Park Medical Center in Baldwin Park, Calif.;
• Kaiser Permanente Bellflower/Downey Medical Center in Bellflower, Calif.;
• Kaiser Permanente Hayward Hospital in Hayward, Calif.;
• Kaiser Permanente Sacramento Hospital in Sacramento, Calif.;
• Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento Hospital in Sacramento, Calif.;
• Stanford Hospital & Clinics in Stanford, Calif.;
• University of California Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, Calif.;
• NorthShore University HealthSystem’s Highland Park Hospital in Highland Park, Ill.;
• Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago;
• Rush University Medical Center in Chicago;
• University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore;
• Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Mass.;
• Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston;
• Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston;
• North Shore Medical Center, Union Hospital in Lynn, Mass.;
• Norwood Hospital in Norwood, Mass.;
• Detroit Receiving Hospital in Detroit;
• Harper-Hutzel Hospital in Detroit;
• Mayo Clinic - Methodist Hospital in Rochester, Minn.;
• Mayo Clinic Saint Marys in Rochester, Minn.;
• Regions Hospital in Saint Paul, Minn.;
• The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, N.J.;
• University Medical Center at Princeton in Princeton, N.J.;
• James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute in Columbus, Ohio;
• The Ohio State University Hospital in Columbus, Ohio;
• Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, Pa.;
• Bon Secours St. Francis Health System in Greenville, S.C.;
• Vanderbilt University Hospital in Nashville, Tenn.; and
• Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle.

Top pediatric hospitals in 2009 achieved a quality score of 95 or better through Leapfrog’s Hospital Recognition Program and are as follows:

• Childrens Hospital Los Angeles in Los Angeles;
• Children’s Hospital of Orange County in Orange, Calif.;
• Children’s National Medical Center in Washington D.C.;
• Children’s Hospital Boston in Boston;
• Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, Minneapolis;
• Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati, Ohio;
• Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC in Pittsburgh; and
• The Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tenn.

— Source: The Leapfrog Group

Cardiac Science and eClinicalWorks Form EMR Connectivity Partnership

Cardiac Science Corporation, which specializes in automated external defibrillator and diagnostic cardiac monitoring devices that connect to EMR and hospital information systems, recently announced a partnership with eClinicalWorks, an EMR system provider.

As a result of this partnership, 30,000 eClinicalWorks physician users across 5,000 medical practices now have the ability to connect their Quinton and Burdick electrocardiogram, cardiac stress test, and Holter systems with the eClinicalWorks EMR. Similarly, Cardiac Science’s installed customer base of more than 65,000 diagnostic monitoring devices can connect with eClinicalWorks and be assured the test results will flow smoothly into the medical record system.

Using Cardiac Science’s HeartCentrix connectivity solution, physicians will have the ability to send data from their diagnostic and monitoring devices into the eClinicalWorks EMR. The HeartCentrix solution can be installed with either a new eClinicalWorks EMR implementation or into an existing eClinicalWorks system.

— Source: Cardiac Science