QUEST, now in second year, aims to improve healthcare
Although healthcare reform seems to have hit a standstill, there are many quality improvement initiatives out there that continue to work for better patient outcomes. The QUEST program (Quality, Efficiency, Safety, and Transparency), a joint venture between Premier and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, is helping those hospitals involved collect and compare quality data. My college Philip Betbeze at HealthLeaders Media wrote this column last week about how QUEST has helped those facilities involved dramatically lower costs. The goals of the program are:
- Save lives: Eliminate avoidable hospital mortalities
- Safely reduce the cost of care: Reduce the costs for each patient’s hospitalization
- Deliver the most reliable and effective care: Ensure that patients receive every recommended evidence-based care measure
- Improve patient safety (year two measure): Prevent incidents of harm in more than 30 categories, including healthcare-acquired infections and birth injuries
- Increase satisfaction (year two measure): Improve the patient’s overall care experience and loyalty to the care providing facility
After the first year savings are estimated at$800 million and 8,000 lives. That is a pretty staggering amount of savings. Is your hospital a QUEST hospital? If so, have you noticed a change in how you deliver care?
About the Author: Heather Comak is a Managing Editor at HCPro, Inc., where she is the editor of the monthly publication Briefings on Patient Safety, as well as patient safety-related books, webcasts, and audio conferences. She is also is the Assistant Director of the Association for Healthcare Accreditation Professionals (www.accreditationprofessional.com) and manages Patient Safety Monitor (www.patientsafetymonitor.com), of which this blog is a part.
Contact Heather by e-mailing hcomak@hcpro.com
