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September 13, 2011

Quality & Patient Safety

Overview

Quality & Patient Safety

December 8, 2008

CHA is committed to helping hospitals improve quality, reduce medical errors and adverse events, and maximize patient safety.

CHA’s vision is an “optimally healthy society.” CHA’s goal is for “every Californian to have equitable access to affordable, high-quality, medically necessary health care.”

California Hospital Engagement Network

Overview

California Hospital Engagement Network
Working to reduce patient harm by 40 percent and readmissions by 20 percent by the end of 2013

February 11, 2012

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has provided $218 million to 26 state, regional, national, or hospital system organizations to form hospital engagement networks and further advance the Partnership for Patients initiative. CHA is a subcontractor to Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET), an affiliate of the American Hospital Association.Each hospital engagement network is focused on 10 clinical areas, as well as leadership and culture, to accelerate the quality improvement and patient safety initiatives already under way in hospitals.  Hospitals will collaborate both locally and nationally across the various hospital engagement networks to adopt new practices that have the potential to reduce inpatient harm by 40 percent and preventable readmissions by 20 percent by the end of 2013. It is an important undertaking that, when achieved together, promises greater benefit to patients and communities.

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California Hospital Patient Safety Organization

Overview

California Hospital Patient Safety Organization

December 8, 2008

CHA established the California Hospital Patient Safety Organization (CHPSO) to improve hospital patient safety and quality by providing leadership and serving as a means of intercommunication and cooperation between hospitals.

This corporation will collect and analyze health care and patient safety data; recommend measures or practices to eliminate or reduce medical errors; educate health care professionals; interact with hospitals and health care professionals; coordinate statewide and regional initiatives and projects; provide data and information to improve patient safety and reduce errors in hospitals; help create a “fair and just” culture of openness and commitment to quality and safety; support activities within the state; carry out functions for a patient safety organization that are authorized in federal or state law; and perform other activities that help improve patient safety and quality or reduce medical errors. 

CHA News Article

CHPSO Offers Insight to Affordable Care Act PSO Mandate

May 9, 2013 Rory Jaffe

The California Hospital Patient Safety Organization (CHPSO) invites CHA members and non-members to join Executive Director Rory Jaffe, MD, MBA, as he helps demystify one of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA’s) least-understood mandates during a free webinar May 21, 11 a.m. – noon (PT). Health insurance exchanges, a key component of the ACA, will require most participating hospitals to:

  • Report to a patient safety organization (PSO);
  • Utilize a patient safety evaluation system (PSES); and
  • Implement a comprehensive discharge program.

CHA News Article

Vanguard Awards Presented at CHPSO’s Second Annual Meeting

April 19, 2013 Rory Jaffe

Patient safety organizations (PSOs) were created to facilitate the protected collection and analysis of incident data to identify and create safer delivery of quality care to patients. PSOs will only be successful in this mission if they have active engagement and submission of incident reports from their member hospitals. During the California Hospital Patient Safety Organization (CHPSO) Second Annual Meeting held April 8 and 9, Executive Director Dr. Rory Jaffe presented CHPSO’s Vanguard Awards to members who exemplify the necessary follow-through by submitting incident data and consistently participating in patient safety initiatives and learning opportunities. The four recipients of the 2012 Vanguard Award are:

  • John Muir Health – Accepted by Dr. Roy Kaplan, executive medical director, quality and safety
  • NorthBay Healthcare Group – Accepted by Mary Dickey, director, accreditation and licensure, patient safety & privacy
  • St. Joseph Health – Accepted by Machelle Theel, director of clinical excellence
  • Sutter Health – Accepted by Teresa L. Wallace, MSW, CPHRM, CPHQ, director of healthcare risk

CHPSO extends its appreciation to these organizations for their commitment to helping eliminate preventable patient harm.

CHA News Article

CHPSO Annual Meeting to Feature Hospital Engagement Network Facilitators

March 21, 2013 Rory Jaffe

The California Hospital Engagement Network (CalHEN) will present a breakout session at the California Hospital Patient Safety Organization’s (CHPSO) Second Annual Meeting, April 8-9 in Sacramento. As part of the session, CalHEN facilitators, who work one-on-one with individual hospitals, and representatives from hospitals across the state will discuss their success in reducing patient harm in various clinical areas. Areas covered will include adverse drug events, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, central line-associated blood stream infections, injuries from falls and immobility, obstetrical adverse events, pressure ulcers, preventable readmissions, surgical site infections, venous thromboembolism, and ventilator-associated pneumonia.

CHA News Article

CHPSO Offers Continuing Education at Annual Meeting

March 15, 2013 Rory Jaffe

At CHPSO’s Second Annual Meeting — Getting to Zero: Innovate, Collaborate, Accelerate — April 8–9 at the Hyatt Regency Sacramento, 14 speakers plus a presentation regarding the Hospital Engagement Network will provide attendees with innovative strategies to eliminate preventable harm and improve the quality of health care delivery. The meeting features 11.4 contact hours of continuing education approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing. Continuing education will also be extended for 9.5 hours of ACHE Qualified Education credit, 9.5 hours for the National Association of Healthcare Quality for CPHQ credit, 9.5 contact hours of credit toward fulfillment of the requirements of ASHRM designations of Fellow (FASHRM) and Distinguished Fellow (DFASHRM), and toward Certified Professional in Healthcare Risk Management (CPHRM) renewal. Full attendance at each day’s educational sessions is a prerequisite for receiving continuing education credit.

CHA News Article

CalPERS Executive to Speak at CHPSO Annual Meeting

March 7, 2013 Rory Jaffe

The California Hospital Patient Safety Organization (CHPSO) is pleased to announce that Doug McKeever, chief of the Health Policy and Program Support Division at the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), will speak at CHPSO’s Second Annual Meeting, April 8-9 in Sacramento. Titled Getting to Zero: Innovate, Collaborate, Accelerate, the meeting has been designed to offer participants knowledge and practical techniques that can be immediately applied to reduce patient harm. McKeever replaces Peter Lee from Covered California, who withdrew due to other commitments. His presentation will focus on the nexus between health care reform, financial sustainability, quality and safety.

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Infection Control

Overview

Infection Prevention

August 21, 2009

Health care-associated infections (HAIs) constitute a risk to patients and health care facilities. Estimates indicate that 240,000 patients admitted to California hospitals annually develop HAIs, contributing to the suffering associated with illness and increasing costs to the health care system by approximately $3.1 billion. Literature suggests that a significant proportion of HAIs can be eliminated with intensive surveillance and prevention programs. CHA supports decreasing the number of HAIs through a deliberate and systematic approach that addresses infection-control program infrastructure and oversight. CHA also supports the public reporting of meaningful, scientifically valid information related to HAIs. The most prevalent HAIs (approximately 80 percent) are urinary tract infections, surgical-site infections, ventilator-associated pneumonia and central-line blood stream infections.

The HAI Advisory Committee – created by SB 739 (Chapter 526, Statutes of 2006) — recommends methods for preventing and reporting HAIs to the California Department of Public Health.

CHA News Article

CDC Campaign Targets Patient Care in Hospitals
Online tools available to protect against spread of CRE infections

April 26, 2013 Julianne Morath, RN, MS

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a launched a vigorous effort to curb infections from carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) infections. The new initiative, called “Detect and Protect,” recommends lab tests to alert clinical staff when CRE has been detected and offers facility-level prevention strategies to curb the spread of the highly antibiotic-resistant germs. The bacteria has the capacity to transfer that resistance to other bacteria, but CDC believes its new campaign can keep it from becoming a serious public health threat.

CHA News Article

CDC Provides New Resources to Alleviate Unsafe Injection Practices

December 6, 2012 BJ Bartleson

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has introduced new resources for its One & Only Campaign — created in 2009 to alleviate unsafe injection practices. The campaign aims to eradicate outbreaks from unsafe medical injections by raising awareness among patients and health care providers about proper practices. The new resources include a table of select recent outbreaks and patient notification events that could have been prevented, according to the CDC, and an infographic illustrating the four best practices health care providers should follow to ensure safe injections. For more information, see the CDC Digital Press Kit at www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2012/dpk-unsafe-injections.html.

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Pay for Quality Reporting/Performance

Overview

Pay for Quality Reporting/Performance

December 8, 2008

Pay for performance is an emerging movement — in which providers are rewarded for the quality of their health care services — among health plans and insurers (the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and others). Some programs are initially providing financial incentives to participate in quality reporting. However, the overall movement focuses on financially rewarding high quality patient care or financially penalizing poor quality of care. The CHA Board has adopted a partial payment or non-payment policy related to billing for preventable adverse events that are under the control of the hospital. 

CHA News Article

CHA Issues Summary of IRF QRP Provisions

December 7, 2012 Patricia Blaisdell Alyssa Keefe

CHA has released a summary of provisions related to the inpatient rehabilitation facility (IRF) quality reporting program (QRP)  that are included in the recently released Medicare outpatient prospective payment system final rule. In the final rule, CMS describes the update process for quality measures and finalizes its proposal to retain all IRF QRP measures for federal fiscal years 2014 and 2015. For more information, see attached CHA summary.

CHA News Article

Webcast to Provide Overview of IPF Quality Reporting Program

December 3, 2012 Alyssa Keefe Sheree Kruckenberg

The first in a series of webcasts for participants in the Inpatient Psychiatric Facility Quality Reporting (IPFQR) Program will be held Thursday, Dec. 6 at 10 a.m. (PT). Hosted by Telligen, the IPFQR support contractor, the webcast is designed for hospital leaders, professional staff, quality improvement coordinators and medical records personnel. It will provide an overview of the IPFQR program, including facility eligibility, program requirements, the process for identifying the patient population, the sampling process and program resources. In addition, the webcast will introduce the hospital-based inpatient psychiatric services measures. To register, go to the event registration webpage. For more information about the webcast, which will be recorded, go to www.qualitynet.org.

CHA News Article

IRF, LTCH Quality Program Recordings Available

July 27, 2012 Patricia Blaisdell Alyssa Keefe

Recordings of recent conference calls held by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on the quality reporting programs for inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs) and long-term-care hospitals (LTCHs) will be available July 30 through Aug. 1. Facilities may access the calls by dialing (855) 859-2056, and using conference IDs 13189170 for IRFs and 13198135 for LTCHs. As mandated by the Affordable Care Act, IRF and LTCH quality reporting programs will begin Oct. 1. 

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Public Reporting of Quality Data

Overview

Public Reporting of Quality Data

December 8, 2008

CHA supports a single, meaningful reporting system of quality data that allows transparency and enhances accuracy. Consumer groups, health plans and payers continue to push for more public disclosure of hospital quality. CHA remains supportive of transparency if the measures are scientifically based, valid and accurate.

CHA News Article

CHA Provides Support for Hospitals to Improve HCAHPS
2013 Webinar Series

January 15, 2013

Hospitals are invited to participate in a series of complementary webinars on the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS), which accounts for 30 percent of each hospital’s score in the Medicare Value-Based Purchasing program. The webinars are scheduled monthly, January through August 2013. In addition, hospitals will be able to participate in one in-person workshop to receive and share tools as well as promising practices and strategies to measure patients’ experience of care, compare and report on performance and improve quality of care. Two workshops are planned  — one in Northern California and one in Southern California. However, exact dates and locations are not yet finalized. CHA is able to provide all California hospitals with this support due to a grant from AHRQ/HRET Patient Safety Learning Network. For details on the webinar series and how to participate, see attached flyer.

Recording

CDPH’s Website on HAI Reporting Webinar CD
Improved website, fresh data on HAI, validation process update

October 9, 2012

Webinar Recorded Live October 9, 2012

In mid-August, CDPH released their most recent data on HAI reporting through an improved website. This website presents the material in a more user-friendly format and groups the reporting hospitals into like categories for a more balanced analysis and comparison. Learn about changes to the website, recent release and analysis of HAI data, and what it says about the performance of California hospitals to date.

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Commands