Iowa Healthcare Collaborative to lead four-state network to reduce hospital infections
The Iowa Healthcare Collaborative has been selected by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as one of 16 organizations nationally that will lead efforts to reduce preventable hospital-acquired infections as Hospital Improvement Innovation Networks.
The CMS has awarded $347 million to the organizations for the initiative, which will work to achieve a 20 percent decrease in overall patient harm and a 12 percent reduction in 30-day hospital readmissions by 2020, compared with 2014 rates.
The Hospital Improvement Innovation Network contracts awarded will build upon the collective momentum of the Hospital Engagement Networks and Quality Improvement Organizations to reduce patient harm and readmissions, said Dr. Tom Evans, president and CEO of Iowa Healthcare Collaborative.
The Des Moines-based organization, created in 2004 through a partnership between the Iowa Hospital Association and the Iowa Medical Society, uses a “multi-stakeholder” approach to bring together and engage physicians, hospitals, insurers, employers, consumers and other community partners to share data and rapidly deploy best practices.
For the new initiative, Iowa Healthcare Collaborative will operate as the Compass Hospital Improvement Innovation Network across four states: Iowa, Colorado, Illinois and South Dakota.
“The Partnership for Patients initiative provides resources to help hospitals provide better care, engage patients and improve community health care outcomes,” Evans said. “We are very proud of Iowa hospitals and their work to improve patient care by reducing patient harm. Iowa hospitals’ combined efforts have resulted in over 6,000 adverse events avoided and approximately $60 million in reduced health care costs.”
Efforts to address health equity for Medicare beneficiaries will be central to the Hospital Improvement Innovation Networks efforts, CMS said in a release. The agency will monitor and evaluate the activities of the Hospital Improvement Innovation Networks to ensure that 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 Dr. Patrick Conway, acting principal deputy administrator and chief medical officer of CMS. “The work of the Hospital
Improvement 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.”
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