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Twenty-One Hospitals in the Midwest Coming Together to Focus on Improving Clinical Quality and Patient Safety

Posted on: Monday, 28 July 2008, 12:01 CDT

Twenty-one hospitals across the five state Region Mid-America have come together to focus on improving clinical quality and patient safety by increasing the amount of time nurses have available at the patient's bedside. A VHA survey showed that nurses spend less than 30 percent of their time in direct patient care.

The hospitals in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska have joined what's known as a Rapid Adoption Network (RAN), a virtual network that will allow them to share information about their clinical practices for the purpose of accelerating the pace of clinical improvement, cutting improvement time to less than one year. The RAN is sponsored by VHA Inc., the national health care alliance.

A unifying focal point for the RAN will be the clinical blueprint VHA has developed to help its members improve the patient experience, a broad objective that many hospitals are now focusing on more intensely as a result of both government and private payor mandates. This blueprint looks at issues, such as: involving the patient in goal setting, doing change of shift reporting at the bedside, hourly rounding, and use of communication boards.

The following hospitals in are working together on this project:

 --  Anderson Hospital, Maryville, Ill. --  Atchison, Atchison, Kan. --  BryanLGH, Lincoln, Neb. --  Cushing Memorial Hospital, Leavenworth, Kan. --  Decatur Memorial, Decatur, Ill. --  Faith Regional, Norfolk, Neb. --  Freeman Health, Joplin, Mo. --  Jennie Edmundson Memorial Hospital, Council Bluffs, Iowa --  Labette Health, Parsons, Kan. --  Mary Lanning Memorial Hospital, Hastings, Neb. --  McDonough District Hospital, Macomb, Ill. --  Memorial Bellville, Bellville, Ill. --  Montgomery County, Red Oak, Iowa --  Passavant Area Hospital, Jacksonville, Ill. --  Pratt Regional, Pratt, Kan. --  Saint Luke's South, Kansas City, Mo. --  Saint Lukes Health System, Kansas City, Mo. --  Saint Lukes Lee's Summit, Lee Summit, Mo. --  Saint Lukes Northland, Kansas City, Mo. --  Sarah Bush Lincoln, Matoon, Ill. --  Skaggs, Branson, Mo.      

"By working together, meeting in real time and virtually, we can share information about how we each perform within the network, enabling us to achieve rapid clinical improvements and provide better care for our patients," said Joanne Nathem, chief nurse executive at Montgomery County Hospital. "VHA's Rapid Adoption Network takes the delivery of quality care to the next level. The clinical blueprints VHA has developed will serve as the foundation for our quality improvement efforts going forward."

"VHA's clinical improvement platform focuses on helping members become leading performers," said Trent Haywood, M.D., J.D., chief medical officer at VHA. "Our programs and services will help guide members towards success and improve clinical care across the country."

"Hospitals across the state are under significant pressure from both federal and state insurance programs and private insurers to improve quality, and participation in this effort will help these hospitals meet that mandate," said Cindy Spiess, senior director of quality and performance improvement at VHA's Mid-America regional office in St. Louis.

A Rapid Adoption Networks is one component of VHA's overall clinical improvement platform, which includes:

 --  Leading Practices Portal -- a Web-based tool specifically designed to     provide hospitals with a faster and more efficient path to adopting leading     practices.  Hospital members can view Leading Practice Blueprints(TM) and     can also compare the gaps in their processes against the leading practice --  Leading Practice Blueprints(TM) -- Sophisticated, yet simple to     follow, process maps based on ethnographic research at top performing VHA     members. These blueprints were developed by carefully studying the     clinical, engineering and design factors that are important to each leading     practice hospital and integrating these elements into a powerful visual     format --  Clinical Educational Series -- Multimedia formatted educational     programs provide year-round access to leading performers and leading     practices      

About VHA -- VHA Inc., based in Irving, Texas, is a national alliance that provides industry-leading supply chain management services and supports the formation of regional and national networks to help members improve their clinical and economic performance. With 17 offices across the U.S., VHA has a track record of proven results in serving more than 1,400 not-for-profit hospitals and more than 23,000 non-acute care organizations nationwide. For more information, go to www.vha.com.

 Media Contact: Lynn Gentry 972/830-0798 Email Contact

SOURCE: VHA

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