Patient safety champs use evidenced-based care, data sharing

As hospitals work to deliver safer, higher-quality care, they should look to Memorial Hermann Healthcare System and Kaiser Permanente, which were recently named national leaders in patient safety.

The Joint Commission (TJC) and National Quality Forum (NQF) yesterday honored the Houston health system and California health plan as quality and safety innovators, TJC announced.

Memorial Hermann received recognition for applying evidence-based care across all of its hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers and clinics. The nonprofit system established an accountability structure, and through a top-down approach, leaders guided employees and bedside staff to implement process improvements, according to the announcement.

To ensure success, the Memorial Hermann tied process measures and outcomes to metric-based goals and reported the results every month.

TJC and NQF also showed that insurers can play an important role in improving patient safety. Kaiser Permanente helped develop clinical best practices, thanks to its implant registries that integrate data across medical centers in nine states and analyze statistics around patient outcomes, HealthLeaders Media reported.

Similar payer-provider data sharing continues to crop up throughout the country. For instance, last month UnitedHealth and Mayo Clinic agreed to combine their data for more than 110 million patients to help research ways to improve care while lowering costs, FierceHealthPayer previously reported.

For more:
- here's the announcement
- read the HealthLeaders article