A new initiative from Health & Human Services aims to save 60,000 million lives and up to $35 billion in health care costs. The Partnership for Patients will work with public and private partners (including the American Hospital Association) to achieve two core goals:
- Keep hospital patients from getting injured or sicker
- Help patients heal without complication by improving transitions from hospitals to other care settings
HHS will invest up to $1 billion in federal funding made available under the Affordable Care Act. Initially, $500 million was made available through the Community-based Care Transitions Program. Community-based organizations and hospitals that partner with them can begin submitting applications for this funding. Up to another $500 million will be dedicated from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Innovation Center to test different models of improving patient care, patient engagement and collaboration to reduce hospital-acquired conditions and improve care transitions.
The partnership will target all forms of harm to patients, but will start by asking hospitals to focus on nine types of medical errors and complications where the potential for a dramatic reduction in harm rates has been demonstrated by innovative hospitals and systems around the country. The nine types are:
- Adverse drug events
- Catheter-associated urinary tract infections
- Central line-associated blood stream infections
- Injuries from falls and immobility
- Obstetrical adverse events
- Pressure ulcers
- Surgical-site infections
- Venous thromboembolism
- Ventilator-associated pneumonia
- Other hospital-acquired conditions
