| EMBARGOED
FOR RELEASE
AT 2PM EST December 22, 2003 |
Contact:
Richard Deutsch
202-331-5790
Ext. 313 |
Taking
the Lead: More Than 50 Institutions Show How To Improve Quality Of Care
Washington,
D.C.— The American Health Quality Association (AHQA) today released
a list of more than 50 health care institutions around the country that
have measurably and significantly improved the quality of their care in
recent years. AHQA published the list—which includes hospitals,
clinics, nursing homes and home health agencies in almost every state—to
coincide with the release today (December 22) of the first annual National
Healthcare Quality Report by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
(AHRQ) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
“The
National Healthcare Quality Report shows that quality of care often falls
short of what science and technology make possible and far short of what
health care professionals expect of themselves and believe they provide
their patients,” said David Schulke, AHQA executive vice president.
“The list we are releasing today shows how dozens of institutions
are breaking the mold, measuring their own performance and doing what
is necessary to provide Americans with the care they should be getting.”
All of the
institutions on the AHQA list have worked extensively with Quality Improvement
Organizations (QIOs), which serve under contract to the Centers for Medicare
and Medicaid Services at HHS to provide doctors and hospitals with guidance
on improving quality. AHQA represents the national network of QIOs.
“QIOs,
the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, the Veterans Administration,
Premier Health Care Alliance, VHA corporation—these and other organizations
are setting the trend for improving quality,” Schulke said. “America’s
quality deficit is not a problem of research or a problem of science,
it is a problem of implementation, a problem of translating science into
everyday practice so every patient gets the best possible care. These
institutions have taken the lead in showing how to reach for perfect implementation.”
What
Can be Done
AHQA’s
list — available at http://www.ahqa.org/pub/media/159_766_4627.CFM
— highlights institutions that have made a commitment to providing
care that meets the guidelines and standards shown by scientific studies
to produce the best results. That involves measuring and tracking how
well care meets defined standards, consistently improving how health care
professionals interact to provide care, and applying new technologies
and tools to get better outcomes. Some examples:
- Better
Heart Care
Parkview
Community Hospital in Riverside, CA, has cut patient mortality
from heart attacks in half. The University of Michigan Medical
Center has made sure that treatment for every heart attack
patient follows all major quality of care guidelines—an achievement
that should be the rule, not an exception. Fort Madison Community
Hospital in Iowa increased provision of ACE inhibitors recommended
for heart failure from 58% in 2001 to 98% of patients in 2002.
-
Fighting Pneumonia
In
a pilot project, Hoag Memorial Hospital in Newport Beach,
California, pushed immunization screening rates and life-saving
vaccinations for pneumonia and flu to 100% and is now working to
extend this process to all patients.
-
Preventing Surgical Infections
Mercy
Health Center, Oklahoma City, OK reduced its surgical site
infection rate by 78% in patients receiving cardiac bypass, orthopedic,
colon, and hysterectomy surgery. St. Joseph Regional Medical
Center in Milwaukee went from 19 surgeries between preventable
surgical infections to 833 during 2002. Gwinnett Hospital
System in Lawrenceville, Georgia, performed 402 hysterectomies
without a single surgical infection. Via Christi Regional
Medical Center, in Wichita, Kansas, cut surgical infection
rate by two-thirds.
- Chronic
Disease Management
Northland
Healthcare, North Dakota, increased the percent of patients
receiving recommended blood sugar tests for diabetes from 74% to
91% during 2001-2002. Brown and Toland, a large
California medical Group, increased its rate of blood sugar testing
for senior diabetics from 50% to 90%.
- Nursing
Home Care
Green
Valley Pavilion Nursing Home in Delaware cut the percentage
of residents reporting serious pain from 39% to 3%. Chestnut
Hill Convalescent Center, Passaic, New Jersey, reduced
pressure ulcers among residents by almost 50%. Westwood
Hills Nursing Home in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, reduced pressure
ulcers by 66% in just 90 days. Clear Creek Care Center in
Westminster, Colorado, cut by 50% the number of residents
experiencing moderate to severe daily pain.
Clear
Steps To Improving Quality
“There
is a clear path to better quality care,” said AHQA’s Schulke,
“We’d like to see the health care profession as a whole take
note of the National Health Quality Report and follow the lead of those
institutions that are succeeding. We believe that’s what most health
care providers want to do.”
Schulke points
out that providing high quality care begins with self-assessment. “The
first step to improvement is measurement of quality,” he noted.
“In the absence of data about how you are doing, it’s easy
to believe you are doing well. We are encouraged by the growing number
of doctors and hospitals that are beginning to objectively measure how
well they are doing in providing the best possible care. Once you see
the gap, you can plan how to close it.”
Many of the
specific steps to better quality care have been spelled out by the Institute
of Medicine in a series of recent reports, most notably in Crossing
the Quality Chasm. The IOM, AHQA and other quality improvement organizations
are urging a major boost in investment in health care information technology
to quicken the pace of quality improvement, help prevent errors, and make
sure that best practices become widely adopted.
HHS also
today released the National Healthcare Disparities Report
detailing differences in quality of care received by different racial
and ethnic groups. QIOs are currently conducting projects across the nation
to reduce such disparities. For example, Colorado Foundation for Medical
Care has improved mammography rates for Hispanic women in that state through
a program of outreach conducted by female health educators known as Promotoras.
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