| Quality
and Patient Safety
Through
a variety of advocacy efforts and membership services, including
collaborative projects with Qualidigm (Connecticut's quality
improvement organization), the state Department of Public
Health (DPH), and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of
Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), CHA strives to promote and
cultivate a culture of continuous quality improvement across
the state.
CHA's
advocacy focus for quality and patient safety is the advancement
of its CHA Board-approved principles on public reporting of
hospital quality and on adverse event reporting oversight.
CHA
is working to:
- Support
initiatives that enhance quality and patient safety in Connecticut
hospitals and that raise awareness that quality and patient
safety are key priorities for hospitals.
– Seek specific statutory authority for surgical first assistants.
– Provide leadership on best practices to address multiple drug-resistant
organisms.
In
addition, CHA's Toward Excellence in Care (TEIC) program,
a JCAHO-approved performance measurement system, provides
acute care hospitals with quality improvement services through
data collection and analysis of clinical processes and outcomes.
Related
Resources
Click
here to read CHA's Pay-for-Performance Principles, which
were adopted by the CHA Board of Trustees in January 2006.
Click
here to read CHA's comment letter to the Department of
Public Health on the Department's proposed regulations entitled
“Medical Protocol for the Administration of Influenza
and Pneumococcal Polysaccharide Vaccines for Patients in Hospitals.”
Click
here to
read CHA President and CEO Jennifer Jackson's June 2005 Letter
to the Editor of the New Haven Register on Connecticut
hospitals' commitment to patient safety.
Click
here to
read CHA's comment letter to CMS on the 25-question version
of the patient perspectives on care survey known as HCAHPS,
which CMS plans to use for public reporting as the next phase
of the Hospital Quality Alliance.
Click
here for an easy-print version of CHA's Hospital Performance
Reporting website.
Click
here to read CHA's comment letter to
the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on
a proposal to involve entities other than Quality Improvement
Organizations (QIOs) as subcontractors for some CMS quality
improvement activities. The
CMS plan indicates that during the 8th Statement of Work (SOW),
the three-year CMS contracting cycle that will begin in fall
2005, QIOs would be required to subcontract tasks for which
they could not "demonstrate capability for excellent performance
on the work" to another entity approved by CMS.
Click
here to read "Clearing the Confusion About Connecticut's
New Adverse Event Reporting Law," a statement by Kenneth W.
Kizer, M.D., MPH, President and CEO of the National Quality
Forum (NQF), which addresses some of the issues raised in
recent news articles and editorials on Connecticut's new adverse
event reporting system.
CMS
fact sheet on Connecticut Department of Public Health-CMS
Hospital Public Reporting Collaboration
Letter
to the Editor of the Journal Inquirer regarding 2004 National
Patient Safety Awareness Week
Letter
to the Hartford Courant Editor regarding May 28, 2003 article
on Adverse Event Reporting
Related
Testimony
Thursday,
March 11, 2004
SB
566, An Act Concerning The Quality Of Health Care
Click
here to view the testimony of Jennifer Jackson, CHA's President
and CEO.
HB
5635, AAC Certified Medical Assistants And Testing By Respiratory
Therapists
Click
here to view the Yale-New Haven Hospital testimony.
Click here to view the CHA
testimony.
Thursdsay,
March 4, 2004
SB
401, An Act Concerning Electronic Transmission of Prescriptions
CHA submitted testimony on this bill.
Click
here to view the CHA testimony.
Tuesday,
March 2, 2004
SB
443, An Act Allowing Outpatients to Receive Collaborative
Disease Therapy Management
CHA submitted testimony in support of this bill, which would
extend collaborative drug therapy management agreements
to the outpatient setting.
Click
here to view the testimony.
SB
439, An Act Concerning Electronic Monitoring Of Controlled
Substance Prescriptions
Click
here to view the testimony.
Friday,
February 27, 2004
SB
294, An Act Concerning Living Wills
Carolyn Brady, CHA Vice President for Patient Care and
Regulatory Services, testified against this bill, which
would impair patient autonomy with respect to living wills.
Click
here to view the testimony.
Tuesday,
February 24, 2004
SB
301, An Act Concerning Formal Evaluation Of The Needs Of
Children Placed In Residential Facilities; SB 303, An Act
Concerning Reporting On Children Placed In Out-Of-State
Residential Facilities
CHA submitted testimony in support of these two bills.
Click
here to view the testimony.
Tuesday,
February 17, 2004
SB
5194, An Act Concerning Inpatient Data Regarding Children
And Youth In Need Of Behavioral Health Services
CHA
testified in support of this bill, which would require the
Department of Social Services (DSS), the Department of Children
and Families (DCF), the Office of Health Care Access (OHCA),
and CHA to work together to develop a system for hospitals
to track children awaiting behavioral health placement.
Click
here to view the testimony.
Thursday,
March 14, 2002
HB
5715, An Act Creating A Program For Quality Health Care
CHA
Vice President of Patient Care and Regulatory Services Carrie
Brady testified in support of a bill that would establish
a quality of care reporting program.
Click
here to veiw the testimony.
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