The New Jersey Hospital Association recently announced that St. Francis Medical Center in Trenton has achieved mentor status for its work in the Partnership for Patients — New Jersey initiative.
Partnership for Patients is a national initiative from the Department of Health and Human Services to improve the quality, safety and affordability of healthcare in the United States. The two goals of the program are to keep patients from getting injured or sicker and to help patients heal without complications.
To achieve these goals, Partnership for Patients measures several healthcare-acquired conditions including adverse drug events, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, central line associated blood stream infections, injuries from falls and immobility, obstetrical adverse events, pressure ulcers, surgical site infections, venous thromboembolism and ventilator-associated pneumonia.
Mentor status means that St. Francis received the highest score of all the hospitals participating in Partnership for Patients — New Jersey in one or more of these conditions.
Statewide, Partnership for Patients — New Jersey participants averted 9,206 adverse patient events in 2013 and saved up to $125 million in healthcare costs.
In the project’s first year, adverse drug events dropped by 50 percent, surgical site infections decreased by 59 percent and the incidence of pressure ulcers was reduced by 43 percent.
For patients, this work has resulted in healthcare that is safer, more efficient and ultimately more affordable.
