Keeping hospital patients safer than ever
The New Hampshire Hospital Association, Foundation for Healthy Communities and hospitals around the state are joining together in an initiative to eliminate harm to patients. New Hampshire is the first state in the country where the governing boards of all community hospitals have signed a resolution to work collaboratively to deliver safe care to everyone who walks through their hospitals’ doors.
Hospitals in New Hampshire work every day to provide better and safer care to the patients they treat, and they’ve made great progress. For the better part of the last ten years, New Hampshire hospitals have ranked #1 in the country for providing the appropriate evidence-based processes of care for patients being treated for heart attacks, heart failure, and pneumonia, and those undergoing surgery. And yet, there is more to be done to ensure that every patient receives the right care every time.
Our goal is to eliminate those instances of patient harm by 2015 that could have been prevented if the evidence-based processes and systems known to improve patient safety had been implemented and followed. “Harm” is defined as an injury in association with medical care (including the absence of indicated medical treatment) that requires or prolongs hospitalization and/or results in permanent disability or death.
- We will build on our current efforts to eliminate central line blood stream associated infections using the principles learned through the national CUSP: Stop BSI program.
- We will continue to advance the use of patient safety checklists by extending their use from the operating room to all procedure areas further eliminating the risk of adverse events with surgical or invasive procedures
- We will collaborate as a group of hospitals on new initiatives that are driven by high reliability science.
- We will be accountable for the goal we have established by internally reporting the results of our efforts and publicly reporting those data that have been validated by an external body. Our NHQualityCare.org web site provides accurate, honest information about the care provided in hospitals statewide.
All of the ongoing statewide projects involving
measurement, patient safety and collaboration of best practices serve to help
our hospitals reach their ultimate goal in the Eliminate Harm Initiative:
| 2011 VTE Disease Prevention |
2009-present Safety Checklist |
| 2009-present Stop BSI |
2008-present Adverse Events |
| 2008-present Wristband Safety |
2005-present CMS Core Measures/NHQualityCare.org |
| 2008-present Hand Hygiene |
2005-present NH Healthcare Quality Assurance Commission |
| 2008-present HCAHPS |
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