The Patient Safety Authority Provides Tools for Healthcare Providers to Participate in the "Partnership for Patients" Initiative

One click on the Authority's website links healthcare providers directly to the information and tools they will need to participate in the national healthcare initiative designed to prevent patient harm

HARRISBURG, Pa., April 14, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority has amended its website to give healthcare providers in Pennsylvania the information needed to participate in the national patient safety initiative, Partnership for Patients, unveiled yesterday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Partnership for Patients calls for hospitals to focus on nine types of medical errors and complications that have the potential to be dramatically reduced if healthcare providers implement process changes proven to be effective in individual facilities.

The Authority has added a "Hospital-Acquired Condition" link to its "Browse by Topic" feature on its website to take healthcare providers directly to the research, information and tools developed from Pennsylvania data on these 10 event types to reduce and eliminate them.  These targeted hospital-acquired conditions (HAC) include: retained foreign objects, air embolism, blood incompatibility, pressure ulcers stages III and IV, harmful falls, manifestations of poor glycemic control, catheter urinary tract infections, vascular catheter-associated infections, surgical site infections and deep vein thrombosis following knee or hip replacements.

"The Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority has done the research and developed the tools which can serve as a springboard for facilities to participate in the Partnership for Patients initiative," Fran Charney, director of Educational Programs at the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority said.  "The information is available at healthcare providers' fingertips so the work can continue in a more concentrated effort to prevent patient harm and reduce medical errors."

Specifically, the Authority has published over 340 Patient Safety Advisory articles with evidence-based research and guidance to help healthcare facilities improve patient safety on a variety of topics. Educational toolkits have also been provided to help facilities implement the process changes needed to prevent harmful events like those listed as hospital-acquired conditions.

Some of the titles of the Advisory articles specific to HACs include:

• Falls in Radiology: Establishing a Unit-Specific Prevention Program
• Improving the Safety of the Blood Transfusion Process
• Medication Errors with the Dosing of Insulin: Problems across the Continuum
• Beyond the Count: Preventing the Retention of Foreign Objects
• Pressure Ulcers: New Staging, Reporting and Risk Reduction Strategies
• Pressure Ulcers: A Look at Reports to PA-PSRS
• Bioburden on Surgical Instruments
• Venous Air Emboli and Automatic Contrast Media Injectors
• A Word About Air Detection Devices

The Partnership for Patients initiative pledges to save 60,000 lives by stopping preventable injuries and complications in patient care over the next three years. The partnership also hopes to save $35 billion in health care costs, including up to $10 billion for Medicare.  For more information on the Partnership for Patients initiative go to www.HealthCare.gov/center/programs/partnership.

To view the information provided for the HAC event types go to the Authority's website at www.patientsafetyauthority.org and go to "Browse by Topic," then click on "Hospital-Acquired Conditions."

SOURCE Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority