September 10, 2009 |
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Trinity Health Joins Joint Commission Center for Transformative Healthcare
Center focuses on stopping breakdowns in patient care, starting with handwashing
Novi, Mich. – September 10, 2009 – Trinity Health is one of the first top hospitals and health systems in America to team with The Joint Commission’s Center for Transforming Healthcare to use new methods to find the causes of and put a stop to deadly breakdowns in patient care.
Trinity Health is the participating organization in the project and its member hospital, St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor, is the pilot site. St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor worked with the Center to tackle hand washing failures that contribute to health care-associated infections that kill nearly 100,000 Americans each year and cost U.S. hospitals $4 billion to $29 billion annually to combat.
In addition to Trinity Health, other hospitals participating in the Center’s first project to make health care safer by being more reliable are Cedars-Sinai Health System, Exempla Healthcare, Froedtert Hospital, Memorial Hermann Healthcare System, The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System, Virtua, Wake Forest University Fairview Health Services, Intermountain Healthcare, Kaiser Permanente, Mayo Clinic, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, Partners HealthCare System, Stanford Hospital & Clinics, Rhode Island Hospital, and Newport Hospital.
The targeted solutions developed by these pioneering hospitals will be shared with the more than 16,000 health care organizations accredited by The Joint Commission.
Trinity Health is among the nation’s leading care organizations, ranking in the top 10 of multi-hospital systems in quality and patient safety, according to an August 2009 study of quality and efficiency by Thomson Reuters.
“The patients who trust Trinity Health with their medical needs expect and deserve safe care. That’s why we are proud to be a part of the Center’s work to end preventable breakdowns in health care,” said Paul Conlon, senior vice president for clinical quality and patient safety, Trinity Health.
The Center’s work with leading hospitals and health systems will lead to the development and testing of targeted, long-lasting patient safety solutions. These proven and practical strategies, based on methods such as Lean Six Sigma long used by other industries, can help transform American health care into a high-reliability industry that ensures patients receive safe, quality care.
“Trinity Health has demonstrated tremendous courage and leadership by stepping up to reliably measure performance, identify causes and develop targeted solutions to a crucial patient safety problem facing all health care organizations,” says Mark R. Chassin, M.D., M.P.P., M.P.H., president, The Joint Commission. “Trinity Health is making a public commitment to improving patient care by using a comprehensive system—the only way to truly make a lasting difference in safety.”
Recognizing that there is no quick fix, Trinity Health and the Center’s other participants set out to solve the problems—soap or alcohol-based hand rubs that are not convenient for caregivers to use, faulty data that lull facilities into thinking hand washing is occurring more frequently than it is, and lack of individual accountability—by using Robust Process Improvement™ tools.
Health care-associated infections are the fourth largest cause of death in the U.S. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates there are approximately 1.7 million new cases of infections that are acquired by patients during their stay in hospitals every year. Although health care organizations and government agencies have developed numerous strategies over the years to battle these infections, studies have found that hand hygiene - the most basic, low-cost and low-technology infection prevention and control strategy - is ignored by half of health care workers. The targeted solutions from the Center now being tested by St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor and other hospitals and health systems include making hand washing a top priority for the hospital, clearly stating expectations, staff training, and always washing before going in and when coming out of a patient’s room.
For more information about The Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare and (Organization name), visit www.centerfortransforminghealthcare.org.
About Trinity Health
Trinity Health is Michigan’s leading health care provider and one of the state’s largest employers, providing the full continuum of care for Michigan’s residents, with 12 hospitals, nine nursing homes, 19 senior housing facilities, eight home health care agencies and four hospices serving 35 counties. More than 25,000 associates provide care to one in 11 Michigan residents. Nationally, Trinity Health is the fourth-largest Catholic health care system with 45 acute-care hospitals, 379 outpatient facilities, 29 long-term care facilities, and numerous home health offices and hospice programs based in seven states. Employing 44,500 full-time staff, Trinity Health reported $7.0 billion in unrestricted revenue and $400.0 million in community benefits in fiscal year 2009. For more information about Trinity Health, visit www.trinity-health.org or find the organization on Facebook.
About Saint Joseph Mercy Health System
Saint Joseph Mercy Health System (SJMHS) is a newly expanded health care organization serving southeast Michigan. Health coverage spans six counties, including Livingston, Macomb, Oakland, St. Clair, Washtenaw and Wayne. It includes 537-bed St. Joseph Mercy in Ann Arbor, 443-bed St. Joseph Mercy Oakland in Pontiac, 304-bed St. Mary Mercy in Livonia, 136-bed St. Joseph Mercy Livingston in Howell, 119-bed St. Joseph Mercy Port Huron, 113-bed Chelsea Community Hospital and 74-bed St. Joseph Mercy Saline. Combined, the seven hospitals are licensed for 1,726 beds, have five outpatient health centers, five urgent care facilities, more than 25 specialty centers; employ more than 14,000 individuals and have a medical staff of nearly 2,700 physicians.
A member of Trinity Health, the nation’s fourth largest Catholic health care organization, SJMHS is committed to providing a remarkable patient experience by using leading edge technology in a comforting and healing environment. As a mission based organization, Saint Joseph Mercy Health System provides approximately $100 million in community benefit to the communities it serves each year. For more information on health services offered at Saint Joseph Mercy Health System, please visit www.sjmercyhealth.org.
About The Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare
The Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit affiliate of The Joint Commission. The Center aims to solve poor quality and unsafe health care and transform health care into a high reliability industry. The Center’s participants – the nation’s leading hospitals and health systems – use a proven systematic approach to analyze specific breakdowns in patient care and discover their underlying causes to develop targeted solutions that solve these complex problems. For more information about the Center, please visit www.centerfortransforminghealthcare.org.
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