NEWS - Health & Hospitals

July 18, 2011 – Both Memorial Hospital and the St. Joseph’s/Candler Hospital System have joined the Georgia Hospital Association’s (GHA) Partnership for Health and Accountability (PHA) program. It is the GHA’s newest three-year hospital quality initiative, “Eliminating Preventable Harm” (EPH).

GHA will partner with Georgia hospitals to reduce or eliminate hospital-acquired conditions (HAC) and hospital-acquired infections (HAI). Nearly all Georgia hospitals have voluntarily signed up to participate.

To allow hospitals a wide selection of potential opportunities for improvement, GHA is offering six collaboratives, of which hospitals will select two to focus on over the next three years:

- CUSP: Stop Blood Stream Infection (BSI)

- CUSP: Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infection (CAUTI)

- Glycemic Control

- Medication Reconciliation

- Preventing Avoidable Readmissions through Transitions (PART)

- Reduce Pressure Ulcers

Each collaborative will have monthly educational sessions and will follow best practice examples to ensure elimination of preventable harm. For example, each year, an estimated 250,000 central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) occur in hospitals, and as many as 62,000 patients die from the infections. The Comprehensive Unit-Based Safety Program (CUSP) model is a safety culture program that utilizes a variety of tools and techniques to help hospitals identify and solve patient safety issues. Developed by the Johns Hopkins Quality and Safety Research Group, it has helped Michigan hospitals save 1,200 lives per year and save $175 million annually.

Georgia hospitals have the opportunity to see the same positive results by enrolling in Georgia’s “On the CUSP: Stop BSI” collaborative, as well. Through education, tools and shared learning experiences, hospitals can change the culture of safety on the unit level and reduce infections.

“The Georgia hospital community is laser-focused on improving patient safety and this new three-year project is an extension of that commitment to do whatever is necessary to make hospital care as effective and safe as possible,” said GHA President Joseph Parker. “We applaud Georgia hospitals for taking a leadership role in this important effort and we look forward to sharing the results of this project.”

About PHA

The Partnership for Health and Accountability, formed in January 2000 and sponsored by the Georgia Hospital Association, is a statewide collaborative that brings together health care providers with community agencies and individuals to achieve healthy communities. PHA includes representation from groups like hospitals, physicians, state health officials, legislators and businesses.