October 18, 2016
Hospital Improvement and Innovation Networks to continue patient safety improvement efforts startedunder the Partnership for Patients initiative
(Helena, Mont.) – Mountain-Pacific Quality Health will partner as a subcontractor for Premier, Inc., to assist critical access hospitals in achieving quality improvement by leveraging their electronic health record (EHR) systems. Premier, Inc., has been selected as one of 16 organizations as a prime contractor to continue efforts in reducing preventable hospital-acquired conditions and readmissions. Mountain-Pacific will be supporting Premier, Inc.’s work nationally.
The awarded Hospital Improvement and Innovation Network contracts build upon the collective momentum of the hospital engagement networks and quality improvement organizations to support hospitals’ efforts to provide the safest and best possible care for their patients. This announcement is part of a broader effort to transform our nation’s health care system into one that works better for the American people and for the Medicare program.
Premier, Inc., will participate in a third round of Hospital Improvement Innovation Networks to continue working to improve patient care in the hospital setting. Mountain-Pacific will be able to support these efforts due to its well established success working with critical access hospitals to improve their use of the EHR to drive quality improvement and increase patient safety.
“Mountain-Pacific staff is committed to continuing the great work that began with the ‘Partnership for Patients’ initiative several years ago,” says Sara Medley, Mountain-Pacific’s CEO. “We congratulate the staff of Premier, Inc., for securing funding for this critically important initiative that will benefit so many in the communities we serve.”
Through 2019, Hospital Improvement and Innovation Networks will work to achieve a 20 percent decrease in overall patient harm and a 12 percent reduction in 30-day hospital readmissions as a population-based measure (readmissions per 1,000 people) from the 2014 baseline. Efforts to address health equity for Medicare beneficiaries will be central to the Hospital Improvement and Innovation Networks efforts. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will monitor and evaluate the activities of the Hospital Improvement and Innovation Networks to ensure they are generating results and improving patient safety. “We have made significant progress in keeping patients safe – an estimated 2.1 million fewer patients harmed, 87,000 lives saved, and nearly $20 billion in cost-savings from 2010 to 2014 – and we are focused on accelerating improvement efforts,” said Patrick Conway, M.D., CMS acting principal deputy administrator and chief medical officer. “The work of the Hospital Improvement and Innovation Networks will allow us to continue to improve health care safety across the nation and reduce readmissions at a national scale – keeping people as safe and healthy as possible.”
Mountain-Pacific is one of 14 Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organizations (QIN-QIOs) in the country and holds federal and state contracts to oversee the quality of care for Medicare and Medicaid members. Mountain-Pacific works within its region (Montana, Wyoming, Alaska, Hawaii and the U.S. Pacific Territories of Guam and American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands) to help improve the delivery of health care and the systems that provide it. Mountain-Pacific’s goal is to increase access to high-quality health care that is affordable, safe and of value to the patients they serve.
For more information about Partnership for Patients and the Hospital Improvement Innovation Networks, please visit: partnershipforpatients.cms.gov. For more information about Mountain-Pacific Quality Health, please visit: www.mpqhf.org.