HRET - Quality and Patient Safety

Quality & Patient Safety

First, do no harm. Health care organizations cannot possibly meet their most important objective--providing safe, quality care--without taking measures to identify systems, procedures and environmental conditions that permit medical errors to occur. Second, provide the best care possible to all members of society. Health care organizations must constantly examine and refine the methods used to train health care professionals, support health infrastructures, and inform patients.

Hospital-Based Palliative Care Consortium Through an educational curriculum, site visits, and technical assistance, the HBPCC program helps hospitals and health systems across the country to develop and implement hospital-based palliative care programs. Learn More	Reducing Disparities in Care, Outcomes Disparities in care and health outcomes are due to more than access to health care. The quality of health care received by patients already in the system varies by race and socioeconomic status. Learn More	National Implementation of the Comprehensive Unit-Based Safety Program HRET is implementing in over 100 hospitals in 10 states a program proven to drastically reduce central line-associated blood stream infections (CLABSI) in ICUs. Learn More	Patient Safety Tools for Physician Practices HRET and partners at ISMP and MGMA have developed a number of practical, easy-to-use tools that can help to improve patient safety in outpatient settings. Learn More

Hospital-Acquired Conditions HRET is examining the impact of Medicare's new payment policy for hospital-acquired conditions (HAC). As of October 1, 2008, CMS no longer pays for eleven conditions if they were acquired during the hospitalization. Learn More	Assessing Quality Improvement Activities in Hospitals What processes and structures are behind successful quality improvement efforts? In a landmark study led by Boston University's Institute for Health Policy, HRET will survey hospitals on the state and impact of QI activities. Learn More	Pathways for Medication Safety^® HRET has teamed up with the AHA and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices to develop a series of tools aimed at helping hospitals reduce medication errors. Learn More	Patient Safety Leadership WalkRounds^TM WalkRounds are an effective tool for promoting a culture of patient safety by openly discussing hazards in systems of care and engaging front-line staff in improvement processes. Learn More

Reducing Hospital-Associated Infections HRET is evaluating the effectiveness of three evidence-based AHRQ tools to reduce ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), central line-associated blood stream infections (CLABSI), and infections associated with chest tube insertions. Learn More	A Practical Model to Transform Childhood Asthma Care Asthma affects more children than any other chronic condition. This project is implementing evidence-based interventions to improve methods of asthma treatment in 16 pediatric practices. Learn More	Improving Quality through Health Information Technology This two-year study is assessing how HIT can improve care delivery and outcomes by tracking and facilitating use of lab orders and results information by clinicians. Learn More	Publications and other Resources HRET's research on Quality and Patient Safety is published in numerous articles, reports, books and more each year. Learn More