Ohio Children’s Hospitals Leading National Effort to Improve Hospital Care and Patient Safety

Leaders from 34 children’s hospitals from across the country gathered at Cardinal Health in Columbus, Ohio, on March 15 to launch a national effort to improve quality of care and patient safety in pediatric hospitals.

“It’s energizing and inspiring to be engaging leaders – ranging from fellow CEOs and individual members of boards of trustees to clinicians and quality experts – from across the country to launch an effort that has the potential to save thousands of lives and millions of dollars,” said Michael Fisher, president and CEO, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and chair of Ohio Children’s Hospitals’ Solutions for Patient Safety (OCHSPS). “The fact that the children’s hospitals in Ohio are the leaders of this effort is testament to the collaborative nature of our hospitals and the proven track record of success we have worked hard to create in our state.”

The work is being funded through the Partnership for Patients initiative, a public-private collaboration to improve the quality, safety, and affordability of health care for all Americans, led by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. OCHSPS, a nonprofit corporation established by Ohio’s eight children’s hospitals to improve quality and safety in children’s hospitals statewide, is one of 26 Hospital Engagement Networks (HENs) funded under this initiative, including a second Ohio-based program that is led by the Ohio Hospital Association and the Ohio Patient Safety Institute (www.ohiopatientsafety.org). OCHSPS it is the only effort in the nation that is focused on pediatric care and reducing Medicaid costs associated with care for children.

“Ohio’s children’s hospitals have demonstrated that when you put the best minds behind the best possible efforts – the results are revolutionary,” said Ohio Governor John Kasich. “That’s why the rest of the nation is looking to Ohio’s institutions to blaze the trail for children’s hospitals nationwide, because they are saving lives and saving dollars through a collaborative effort that is truly the first of its kind. That’s what we do in Ohio – we don’t just make improvements, we raise the bar.”

OCHSPS was well positioned to work with CMS to create the National Children’s Network based upon previous successes in Ohio. Ohio’s eight children’s hospitals worked together to achieve a 60 percent reduction in surgical site infections in designated cardiac, neurosurgery and orthopedic procedures and a 34.5 percent reduction in overall adverse drug events. These efforts have saved more than 7,700 children from unnecessary harm and avoided $11.8 million in unnecessary health care costs since the project’s inception. The Cardinal Health Foundation has provided $3.0 million to-date in support of these efforts.

Hospitals participating in the OCHSPS National Children’s Network will be working together to achieve specific goals by December 31, 2013, including reducing serious harm in participating institutions by 40 percent; reducing readmissions by 20 percent; and reducing serious safety events by 25 percent. The network will add an additional 50 children’s hospitals in 2013.

To achieve the network’s goals, participating hospitals will be learning from high reliability industries – such as nuclear power and aviation – that achieve high levels of safety in the face of considerable hazards and operational complexity. In addition, participants will focus on transparent sharing of data; development and use of standardized pediatric measures and process bundles; and the use of common tools and techniques to address organizational culture. Specifically, the network will be working to reduce harm in 11 healthcare acquired conditions, including:

• Adverse drug events (ADE)
• Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI)
• Central line-associated blood stream infections (CLABSI)
• Injuries from falls and immobility
• Pressure ulcers
• Surgical site infections
• Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP)
• Preventable readmissions
• Obstetrical adverse events
• Venous thromboembolism
• Serious safety events (SSE)

OCHSPS will also be leading the network’s efforts to develop definitions for the above mentioned pediatric domains of harm that will be considered for use by The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as national definitions for pediatric harm measures.

More information about the Ohio Children’s Hospitals’ Solutions for Patient Safety is available at www.solutionsforpatientsafety.org.
More information about Partnership for Patients is available at www.healthcare.gov/partnershipforpatients.