Arizona Hospitals—Improving Individual Patient Care

HSAG has been funded by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to help a limited number of hospitals target improvement in high-prevalence, high-cost clinical topics, such as healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). As of December 1, 2011, HSAG has entered into agreements with 23 hospitals to provide technical assistance and other services to reduce HAIs.

HSAG supports hospitals with evidence-based clinical interventions and proven best practices to improve individual patient care. We do this by including the voice of the patient in all of our activities, leading the way to patient-centered care. Our hospital improvement activities include collaborative projects, online interaction, rapid-cycle improvement strategies, and peer-to-peer education. Through large-scale learning and action networks where everyone teaches and learns, HSAG works to accelerate the pace of change and rapidly spread best practices.

In hospitals, current work targets HAIs and focuses on the prevention of catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs), surgical site infections (SSIs), central line-associated blood stream infections (CLABSIs), and Clostridium difficile infections (CDIs). HSAG activities are designed to support and enhance hospitals’ ongoing HAI prevention efforts and any existing quality improvement initiatives—including the Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP) and Partnership for Patients Hospital Engagement Contractors—with no duplication of effort. All activities are fully coordinated with HSAG’s statewide partners—the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association, the Arizona Department of Health Services, and the Grand Canyon Chapter of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.

In addition to reducing HAIs in Arizona, HSAG is funded to provide technical assistance to Arizona hospitals that publicly report inpatient and outpatient quality data to CMS. HSAG will also bring together hospitals, nursing homes, patient advocacy groups, and other stakeholders to improve care transitions and decrease adverse drug events.

HSAG assists select hospitals in quality improvement initiatives to improve the quality of care and level of patient safety delivered to Medicare beneficiaries. Quality improvement will occur by:

• Reducing HAIs.
  • CLABSIs
  • CAUTIs
  • SSIs
  • CDIs
• Assisting with Quality Data Reporting and Improvement.
  • Inpatient Quality Reporting
  • Outpatient Quality Reporting
  • National Healthcare Safety Network—HAI Reporting
  • Critical Access Hospital (CAH) Reporting
• Reducing Adverse Drug Events.
• Improving Care Transitions and Reducing Hospital Readmissions.
• Conducting Medical Case Review.

If you are interested in working with us, please contact Charlie Chapin, MS, CHCA, Director, Hospital Patient Safety,
at 602.801.6940 or cchapin@hsag.com.