Hospitals show improvement in Patient & Family Engagement

The South Dakota Association of Healthcare Organizations has 42 South Dakota hospitals participating in the Iowa Healthcare Collaborative (IHC) Hospital Improvement Innovation Network (HIIN), which is known as the COMPASS HIIN. HIINs are guiding more than 4,000 hospitals in the continued reduction of hospital-acquired conditions and preventable readmissions.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) continues to advance the vision of a safer, more equitable and person-centered health care system transformed by meaningful patient and family engagement (PFE). To support this vision, CMS has championed the Partnership for Patients (PfP), a quality and safety improvement initiative to make hospital care safer, more reliable and less costly.  Integrated within all HIINs is the PfP which stemmed from one of the first models tested under the authority of section 1115A of the Social Security Act. The PfP is a nationwide public-private collaboration striving to prevent patients from being harmed while in the hospital and to heal without complication once they are discharged.

There continues to be increasing evidence that PFE plays a critical role in improving patient safety. PFE guides hospitals to incorporate what matters most to patients and families, as well as improving the ability to achieve long-term improvements in quality and safety.

South Dakota hospitals over the last 18 months have made significant improvements in PFE. Currently, 90 percent of participating South Dakota COMPASS HIIN hospitals are meeting three of the five PFE metrics. Continued heightened awareness and improvement efforts are occurring to further integrate PFE into hospital operations which promotes quality and safety as an organizational priority.

The HIIN PFE metrics include:

• PFE-1:  Pre-admission planning checklist
• PFE-2:  Shift change huddles or bedside reporting
• PFE-3:  Designated PFE leader
• PFE-4:  Patient representative on hospital committee
• PFE-5:  Patient representative on board of directors

The chart shows the progress made in the past 18 months by South Dakota’s 42 hospitals.