Participants in the 2010-2011 class of the nationally-renowned AHA-NPSF Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship, administered by HRET, are carrying out projects focused on improving patient safety in their organizations and are inspiring similar projects nationwide. The current class of Fellows, who began coursework in July, is a multi-disciplinary group of 32 health care professionals that includes physicians, nurses, risk managers, quality directors, and others. In addition to participating in an interactive learning curriculum focused on patient safety science and leadership development, each Fellow completes a patient safety improvement project for his or her organization. Among the project topics being pursued are infection prevention technology, a multidisciplinary approach to falls prevention, preventing avoidable 30-day readmissions of heart failure and elderly pneumonia patients, chemotherapy ordering and administration, and integrating patient safety and graduate medical education. For a full profile of the class, see the September 20 issue of AHA News. Applications for the 2011-12 class will be available later this fall. For more information about the fellowship, visit http://www.hpoe.org/fellowships/PSLF/index.shtml or call (312) 422-2931.

• Building on the success of an initial outreach project, HRET will encourage use of the United States Preventive Services Task Force recommendations in clinical practice, curricula, lesson plans, and teaching activities in academic institutions and continuing education.
• HRET will be recruiting experts to assist Indian Health Service’s clinics participating in learning networks as part of a national collaborative to improve patient care.

Click here for more information on HRET’s work through the AHRQ knowledge transfer contract.

On Wednesday, November 3 HRET will host a free webinar on the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's electronic Preventive Services Selector, designed to help providers implement the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force's evidence-based recommendations. The ePSS can be installed as a mobile or desktop application to allow providers to search for the task force's latest recommendations by specific patient characteristics, such as age, sex and selected behavioral risk factors. Click here to register for this free webinar.

HRET and the AHA’s Center for Healthcare Governance would like to encourage all hospitals to complete a short survey about their governance practices and board culture. The survey results will inform an AHA report that will be sent to all hospitals in early 2011, as well as Center for Healthcare Governance educational offerings. Both hospital CEOs and board chairs are encouraged to complete the multiple-choice survey, which will close November 5. A letter containing instructions for accessing the electronic survey was e-mailed to hospital CEOs last week. For more information, e-mail mailto:kvandyke@aha.org?subject=AHA Governance Survey Question.

Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) are the most common type of health care-associated infection in U.S. hospitals and account for more than one-third of all such infections. HRET, through a contract with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and in partnership with the Johns Hopkins University Quality and Safety Research Group, the Keystone Center for Patient Safety and Quality of the Michigan Health & Hospital Association, and investigators from the University of Michigan, is implementing a patient safety program to dramatically reduce CAUTI in U.S. hospitals. This program, On the CUSP: Stop CAUTI, was launched this month in the first cohort of participating states. A second cohort will begin their participation in early 2011. For more information about the project, visit http://www.onthecuspstophai.org/. To learn more about participation in your state, contact Deborah Bohr at 646-678-4280 or dbohr@aha.org.

Patient-centered medical homes are primary care collaboratives that enhance communication and shared decision-making among the patient, his/her family, and the full spectrum of primary and specialized care providers. Health reform legislation provides incentives for health care organizations to form community-based patient-centered medical homes. How is this care model structured, and what are existing and potential roles for hospitals? The recent AHA Research Synthesis Report on the Patient-Centered Medical Home addresses these questions and synthesizes studies of this innovative care model. Click here for more information and to download the full report.

This month’s issue of Health Services Research features articles on quality and outcomes, utilization and costs, public programs, and survey research. This month’s free article is “The Hospital Compare Mortality Model and the Volume-Outcome Relationship,” by Jeffrey H. Silber, Paul R. Rosenbaum, Tanguy J. Brachet, Richard N. Ross, Laura J. Bressler, Orit Even-Shoshan, Scott A. Lorch and Kevin G. Volpp. The article addresses the question of whether Medicare’s Hospital Compare model accurately assesses acute myocardial infarction hospital mortality rates when there is a relationship between hospital volume and patient outcomes. Also available this month is a special issue, Health Services Research in 2020:  Assessing the Field's Data Infrastructure Needs, supported by AcademyHealth with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Commonwealth Fund. To access this month’s issues and download the free article, visit http://www.hsr.org/.