AAMC Announces “Best Practices for Better Care” Campaign

Unique initiative focuses on quality and patient safety.

Washington, D.C., March 30, 2011—The AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) announced a new multi-year effort, Best Practices for Better Care, that harnesses the unique missions of academic medicine—medical education, patient care, and research—and applies them to the challenges of improving quality and safety in health care. More than 200 medical schools, teaching hospitals, and health systems have committed to implement the campaign’s five initial components:

• Teach the next generation of doctors about the importance of quality and patient safety through formal curricula
• Ensure safer surgery through use of surgical checklists
• Reduce infections from central lines using proven protocols
• Reduce hospital readmissions for high-risk patients
• Research, evaluate, and share new and improved practices.

“America’s medical schools and teaching hospitals are committed to leading the changes that will improve our nation’s health. Best Practices for Better Care is a unique collaboration in which medical schools, teaching hospitals, and their physicians and scientists will work together to advance the quality and safety of patient care,” said AAMC President and CEO Darrell G. Kirch, M.D.

Through the effort, participating institutions, which collectively represent 12 percent of hospital admissions nationwide, will improve care today by broadly implementing proven practices pioneered by teaching hospitals to ensure safer surgeries, reduce infections, and cut hospital readmissions. The campaign also will improve care in the future by schooling medical students and residents in these best practices, with quality and safety emphasized in medical education from day one. In addition, through the campaign’s research and evaluation component, participating institutions will study and spread knowledge about what works best in order to continually improve.

Metrics have been established for each of the five best practices. The AAMC expects to issue the campaign’s first progress report no later than February 2012.

For more information about Best Practices for Better Care and a list of participating institutions, visit www.aamc.org/bestpractices.