UH Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital Participating in National Effort to Improve Children's Hospital Care and Patient Safety

Mar 16, 2012 6:15 PM ET

CLEVELAND, March 16, 2012 /3BL Media /PRNewswire/ -- UH Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital is one of 34 children's hospitals in the country participating in a national effort to improve the quality of care and improve patient safety in pediatric hospitals in the form of a Hospital Engagement Network (HEN). The network officially launched on March 15, 2012 in Columbus, Ohio, at a kick-off meeting that included CEOs, individual hospital board members, clinical leaders and others from all 34 participating hospitals.

The Ohio Children's Hospitals' Solutions for Patient Safety (OCHSPS) National Children's Network is part of the Partnership for Patients initiative, a nationwide public-private collaboration to improve the quality, safety, and affordability of health care for all Americans, led by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The OCHSPS National Children's Network is the only effort in the nation that is focused on improving pediatric care and reducing Medicaid costs associated with care for children.

Dr. Ethan Leonard, Vice-Chair for Quality at UH Rainbow and Babies Children's Hospital, says, "Rainbow is proud to have been among the eight Ohio children's hospitals that have successfully collaborated to reduce harm and looks forward to the opportunity to both mentor and learn from the 26 additional hospitals joining this crucial effort as it spreads throughout the nation."

The OCHSPS National Children's Network will be working to achieve specific goals by Dec. 31, 2013, including reducing serious harm in participating institutions by 40 percent; reducing readmissions by 20 percent; and reducing serious safety events by 25 percent. The network will add an additional 50 children's hospitals in 2013.

To achieve the network's goals, participating hospitals will be learning from high reliability industries such as nuclear power and aviation that achieve high levels of safety in the face of considerable hazards and operational complexity. In addition participants will focus on the transparent sharing of data; development and use of standardized pediatric process bundles; and the use of common tools and techniques to address organizational culture to reduce harm in 11 healthcare acquired conditions, including:

Adverse drug events (ADE)
Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI)
Central line-associated blood stream infections (CLABSI)
Injuries from falls and immobility
Pressure ulcers
Surgical site infections
Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP)
Preventable readmissions
Obstetrical adverse events
Venous thromboembolism
Serious safety events (SSE)

The network also will be working to develop definitions for the above mentioned pediatric domains of harm that will be considered for use by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as national definitions for pediatric harm measures.

The National Children's Network is being led by OCHSPS, a non-profit corporation of eight children's hospitals in Ohio that, through statewide collaborative efforts, has already achieved a 60 percent reduction in surgical site infections in designated cardiac, neurosurgery and orthopedic procedures and a 34.5 percent reduction in overall adverse drug events. These efforts have saved more than 7,700 children from unnecessary harm and avoided $11.8 million in unnecessary health care costs since the work began in 2009.

"At some point in our lives many of us are going to need hospital care and we need to be confident that no matter where we live, we're going to get the best care in the world," said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. "The Partnership for Patients is helping the nation's finest health systems share their knowledge and resources to make sure every hospital knows how to provide all of its patients with the highest quality care."

For more than a century, University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital has been dedicated solely to the care of children. As one of the most renowned pediatric medical centers and a principal referral center for Ohio and the region, Rainbow physicians will receive more than 200,000 patient visits annually. The 244-bed hospital is home to 850 pediatric specialists and 40 special care centers including Centers of Excellence in oncology, neonatology, neurology and endocrinology. As a teaching affiliate of Case Western Reserve University, Rainbow will train more than 100 pediatricians annually and consistently ranks among the top children's hospitals in research funding from the National Institutes of Health.

More information about Partnership for Patients is available at www.healthcare.gov/partnershipforpatients. More information about the Ohio Children's Hospitals' Solutions for Patient Safety is available at www.solutionsforpatientsafety.org.