Texas Hospitals Celebrate Gains in Care Improvement
March 6-12 is National Patient Safety Awareness Week
AUSTIN (March 10, 2011) – The Texas Hospital Association and hospitals throughout the state are celebrating National Patient Safety Awareness Week, March 6-12.
“Improving care and reducing preventable errors and infections are top priorities for Texas hospitals,” said THA President/Chief Executive Officer Dan Stultz, M.D., FACHE, FACP. “The Texas Center for Quality & Patient Safety, an affiliate launched by THA last year, is implementing national and statewide initiatives to assist hospitals in eliminating hospital-acquired infections and preventing avoidable readmissions.”
This week, TCQPS hosted a two-day TeamSTEPPS® training session for THA-member hospitals in Austin. TeamSTEPPS (Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety) is a teamwork improvement system based on more than 25 years of research and evidence on team performance in high-risk areas like health care. Through the program, hospital teams learn to maximize patient outcomes by creating a shared mental model through teachable skills that focus on leadership, communication, situation monitoring and mutual support.
“The interest among Texas health care providers for this type of team training was overwhelming,” said Terri Conner, Ph.D., vice president of TCQPS. “Teams from more than 20 hospitals received training this week and are committed to using the TeamSTEPPS approach to improve patient safety in an array of care settings. We hope to schedule additional trainings in the near future to accommodate everyone on our waiting list,” she said.
In 2011, Texas hospitals will begin publicly reporting rates of central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) and surgical site infections (SSIs). THA and Texas hospitals supported the legislation that created the mandatory state reporting system.
To prevent CLABSIs, Texas hospitals have been actively engaged in various infection prevention initiatives such as the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s 5 Million Lives Campaign, the national On the CUSP: Stop BSI initiative, as well as programs implemented by individual hospitals and systems. These initiatives are based on evidence-based practices and protocols, such as use of a checklist that outlines the steps to reduce the rate of infection.
The Texas Center for Quality & Patient Safety is coordinating several projects for Texas hospitals. Through a grant from its founding underwriter, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas, the center began with statewide collaboratives to reduce or eliminate CLABSIs in hospital intensive care units (On the CUSP: Stop BSI) and a hospital collaborative to reduce catheter-associated urinary tract infections. In addition, the center formed a collaborative of hospitals to focus on reducing preventable readmissions.
“With health care reform accelerating the focus on quality and patient outcomes, THA and the center aim to provide hospitals with tools and information to help them adapt to delivery system changes,” said Stultz.
National Patient Safety Awareness Week is coordinated by the National Patient Safety Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving patient safety and reducing medical errors.
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About the Texas Hospital Association
Founded in 1930, the Texas Hospital Association is the leadership organization and principal advocate for the state’s hospitals and health care systems. Based in Austin, THA enhances its members’ abilities to improve accessibility, quality and cost-effectiveness of health care for all Texans. One of the largest hospital associations in the country, THA represents more than 85 percent of the state’s acute-care hospitals and health care systems, which employ more than 365,000 health care professionals statewide. Learn more at www.tha.org or follow THA on Twitter at http://twitter.com/texashospitals.
About the Texas Center for Quality & Patient Safety
The Texas Center for Quality & Patient Safety, formed in 2010 as an affiliate of the Texas Hospital Association, brings together hospitals, state and national patient safety experts, and evidence-based best practices to improve patient safety and reduce costs by enhancing the quality of care delivered. Learn more at www.texashospitalquality.org.
