Patient Safety

Under the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) 9th Scope of Work, quality improvement organizations such as HSAG will focus their patient safety activities on the following topics:

• Reducing rates of health care-associated Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections
• Reducing rates of pressure ulcers in nursing homes and hospitals
• Reducing rates of the use of physical restraints in nursing homes
• Improving inpatient surgical safety and heart failure treatment in hospitals
• Improving drug safety
• Providing quality improvement technical assistance to nursing homes in need

The Patient Safety Theme, also known as the CMS National Patient Safety Initiative (NPSI), is designed to address areas of patient harm for which there is evidence that improving health care processes and systems improves safety. The NPSI brings forward components from previous work (surgical care, heart failure, pressure ulcers, and restraints in nursing homes, and drug safety), allowing QIOs to broaden the progress they have made with providers over the past three years.

For more information on HSAG's hospital initiatives, please click here.

For more information on HSAG's nursing home initiatives, please click here.

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