Intermountain-led Effort Contributes to Improved National Medical Outcomes

Salt Lake City, Utah – The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has recognized an Intermountain Healthcare-led Hospital Engagement Network in the national Partnership for Patients initiative. Partnership for Patients was launched in 2011 as a coordinated, national effort to improve patient safety in U.S. hospitals.

The Intermountain Healthcare-led Hospital Engagement Network consisted of 95 hospitals across 17 states. Since 2011, the initiative helped avoid an estimated 14,559 adverse events with a total estimated cost savings of $167 million.  

Nationwide, more than 3,700 hospitals participated in the three-year Partnership for Patients initiative to improve patient safety. The initiative had the ambitious goal of reducing hospital-acquired conditions by 40% and readmissions by 20% by the end of the 2014. Hospital-acquired conditions include adverse drug events, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, central line associated bloodstream infections, pressure ulcers, and surgical site infections, among others.

A report released by the Department of Health and Human Services shows an estimated 50,000 fewer patients died in hospitals and approximately $12 billion in healthcare costs were saved as a result of a reduction in hospital-acquired conditions nationally from 2010 to 2013.