Patient Safety Findings Show Reduced Harm, Fewer Readmissions at Hospitals of Community Healthcare System

chs-stockAfter a three-year campaign to prevent harm and reduce readmissions for hospital patients across the nation, the results are in. Participating Indiana hospitals, including the hospitals of Community Healthcare System, are showing significant progress.

From 2012-2014,116 Indiana hospitals including Community Hospital in Munster, St. Catherine Hospital in East Chicago and St. Mary Medical Center in Hobart, partnered with the Indiana Hospital Association (IHA) in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Partnership for Patients campaign. Guided by the American Hospital Association and Health Research & Educational Trust’s Hospital Engagement Network, the goal was to make care safer by decreasing hospital-acquired conditions by 40 percent and reducing hospital readmissions by 20 percent.

“Community Hospital, St. Catherine Hospital and St. Mary Medical Center’s ongoing initiatives for providing high quality patient care represent a unified team effort,” said John Gorski, Chief Operating Officer for Community Healthcare System. “We’re proud of the leadership stance our hospitals have taken in working with our physicians and healthcare professionals to implement new processes that ultimately benefit all of us. We recognize patient safety is everyone’s job and will continue to strive to make improvements on a daily basis.”

Participating hospitals worked to improve care in 11 core patient safety areas of focus, such as early elective deliveries and pressure ulcers. Staff participated in educational meetings and trainings to increase improvement capacity and provided data tracking and reporting for each topic to encourage further awareness and monitoring.

Findings from the Health Research & Educational Trust indicate Indiana hospitals prevented 4,690 harms resulting in an estimated $22.3 million in healthcare cost savings, which includes:

1,254 unnecessary readmissions with a cost savings of $11 million

$2 million through the prevention of 110 Venous Thromboembolisms, the leading cause of complications and preventable hospital deaths

Decreased early elective deliveries by 76 percent

“When it comes to patient safety, Indiana hospitals don’t compete with one another – they collaborate to share best practices, address regional needs and work together on quality improvements for the sake of their patients and the communities they serve,” said Doug Leonard, president of IHA. “We are extremely proud of the results achieved during the Partnership for Patients campaign that highlight the tremendous accomplishments of our hospitals and reflect leadership commitment to quality and patient safety.”