Improving Patient Safety: Commonwealth Fund Resources
<p>Today Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the launch of Partnership for Patients, a new public–private initiative. According to HHS, the partnership will help save 60,000 lives by reducing the number of preventable injuries and complications in patient care over the next three years—and it has the the potential to save up to $35 billion in health care costs. Two of the partnership's goals are to decrease preventable hospital-acquired conditions by 40 percent by the end of 2013, compared to 2010, and to reduce all hospital readmissions by 20 percent. </p>
<p>A new <a href="/~/media/307ab4f930f243d1b4064a1254ec2598.ashx">Commonwealth Fund Patient Safety Resources</a> page offers links to Fund materials, including a recent overview of findings from four case studies of hospitals with exceptionally low readmission rates and information about State Action on Avoidable Rehospitalizations (STAAR), a Commonwealth Fund-supported Institute for Healthcare Improvement initiative designed to help hospitals improve their processes for transitioning discharged patients to other care settings. </p>
<p>Also be sure to visit <a href="http://whynotthebest.org/">WhyNotTheBest.org</a> to compare U.S. hospitals' performance on measures of evidence-based care, patient experience, readmission and mortality rates, and costs. <br /></p>