UMass Memorial Cuts CLABSI Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center among the first-ever awardees in the National Awards Program to Recognize Progress in Eliminating Healthcare-Associated Infections CDC: Hospitals continue progress in preventing infections American Heart Association: Improvements in Door-to-Balloon Time in the US - 2005 to 2010 Thomson Reuters Top 10 Health Systems of 2011 UMass Memorial Diabetes Scorecard Cooley Dickinson Hospital: Better-than-National Infection Rate Drops Further Following UV Room Disinfection Mercy Medical Center, Implements a Program to Decrease Pressure Ulcers Lawrence General Hospital: Runner Up: Med/surg unit boosts safety and satisfaction with initiative care MetroWest Medical Center Demystifies Outpatient Satisfaction Partners Study on Falls Featured in JAMA Winchester Hospital: A Focus on Outcomes Southcoast Health System: Reducing the Use of Safety Sitters Partners: Coordinating Care for High-Risk Patients New Bedford Rehab's use of volumetric capnography Winchester Hospital -- Reducing IV-associated bloodstream infection Newton-Wellesley Hospital: eMAP Rx for Medication Errors? Reducing Surgical Site Infections at New England Baptist Hospital Milton Hospital Reduces Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections Cooley Dickinson Hospital's Positive Culture Led to Pressure Ulcer Improvements Beverly Hospital Implements Nurse-Led Program to Reduce Patient Falls Boston Medical Center Nurses Teach Pressure Ulcer Prevention Two Hospitals are Co-Winners of Betsy Lehman Patient Safety Award Making Strides at Jordan Hospital to Reduce Falls Telling Your Hospital's Story Public Reporting of Serious Reportable Events Winchester Hospital's Hand-Hygiene Competency Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Wins $4.9 Million Grant for Program to Improve Patient Outcomes Within 30-Day Window of Discharge

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PCL Promise: The Details:

Healthcare quality and patient safety

  • Ensure that quality-and-safety topics are high-priority, visible efforts of hospital leadership.
  • Integrate proven patient safety strategies into hospital processes of care.
  • Monitor and report progress on efforts to improve quality of care and patient safety.
  • Measure improvement over time on specific endeavors.

Providing staffing that meets patient needs

  • Under PatientCareLink, hospitals voluntarily make staffing plans available to patients and the public and post them on the PCL website. This annual plan describes staffing in each hospital clinical unit (medical-surgical, critical care and emergency department) by shift. The plan also describes the factors that nurse leaders must consider in determining how to care for each patient and provides information on care provided on an "hours per patient day" basis. Nurse leaders who are responsible for putting the plan together gather information and advice from nurses and others providing care to patients.
  • Hospitals also file an annual aggregate report on their plans, to show how they were actually carried out. These reports include an explanation of appropriate actions taken if there are significant variations from the original annual plan.

Making hospital data and performance measures transparent and publicly available

  • Hospitals have committed to a common framework of measurement and reporting that is based on the national Hospital Quality Alliance and which includes a patient experience survey. Hospitals have begun publicly reporting as many as seven of the same nursing-sensitive, evidence-based measures selected from the National Quality Forum, including "care hours per patient day."
  • Via the PCL web site and individual hospital outreach, educate the public about what hospitals are doing to ensure and improve safe care.
  • Forge partnerships among hospitals and with leaders of business, government, consumer groups, and others to promote access to high-quality, safe care for all. Such efforts include expanding health insurance coverage, sustaining the capacity of the healthcare system to deliver care, and identifying ways to assist providers of care to obtain and deploy new technologies to advance patient safety.

Workforce development

  • Create hospital-based initiatives and strategic partnerships to tackle the chronic problem of shortages of nurses and other care professionals. Efforts include in-house education programs, innovative "career ladders," mentoring and preceptor opportunities, joint funding of nurse faculty positions in educational institutions, and expanding clinical training sites.
  • Support government-based initiatives to develop and maintain a solid corps of dedicated healthcare care professionals in addition to "in-house" endeavors. Examples include supporting the Nursing Compact and supporting supply-side legislation such as scholarships, loan forgiveness, and incentives for primary care.

    • Promoting a safe, respectful and supportive working environment

  • Undertake externally recognized programs that support performance excellence, such as LEAN and Six Sigma, the American Nurses Credentialing Center "Magnet" hospital designation and the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Program, and/or adopt the principles that support such programs.
  • Support legislation to protect all hospital and other provider employees from workplace violence.
  • Work with other healthcare leaders to study the effects of fatigue on human performance in healthcare settings and identifying strategies to address the issue.
  • Monitor progress of efforts to improve the work environment.  Examples of such 'practice environment assessments' include surveying caregivers and measuring improvement over time on specific employee satisfaction endeavors.  These also include feasible alternatives to mandatory overtime and identification of ways to manage patient care without its use.