CMS awards $347 million to hospitals in new safety, quality initiative

CMS has announced 16 organizations receiving a total of $347 million in grants in its new Hospital Improvement and Innovation Networks (HIINs) program.

Replacing the Hospital Engagement Networks (HENs) within the Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) program, HIINs aims to cut 30-day readmissions by 12 percent and overall patient harm by 20 percent by 2019. It was first announced in May 2016.

“We have made significant progress in keeping patients safe—an estimated 2.1 million fewer patients harmed, 87,000 lives saved, and nearly $20 billion in cost-savings from 2010 to 2014—and we are focused on accelerating improvement efforts,” said CMS Chief Medical Officer Patrick Conway, MD. “The work of the Hospital Improvement and Innovation Networks will allow us to continue to improve healthcare safety across the nation and reduce readmissions at a national scale—keeping people as safe and healthy as possible.”

The 16 organizations receiving the awards are:

• Carolinas Healthcare System
• Dignity Health
• Healthcare Association of New York State
• HealthInsight
• The Health Research and Educational Trust of the American Hospital Association
• Health Research and Educational Trust of New Jersey
• Health Services Advisory Group
• The Hospital and Health System Association of Pennsylvania
• Iowa Healthcare Collaborative
• Michigan Health & Hospital Association (MHA) Health Foundation
• Minnesota Hospital Association
• Ohio Children’s Hospitals’ Solutions for Patient Safety
• Ohio Hospital Association
• Premier, Inc.
• Vizient, Inc.
• Washington State Hospital Association

The number of participating organizations is, for now, much smaller than the HENs program, which grew to encompass more than 3,700 acute care hospitals covering more than 80 percent of all hospital discharges.

The new effort has the support of large interest groups such as the National Partnership for Women & Families and the American Hospital Association (AHA).

“America’s hospitals embrace the ambitious new goals CMS has proposed,” said AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack. “The vast majority of the nation’s 5,000 hospitals were involved in the successful pursuit of the initial Partnership for Patients aims. Our goal is to get to zero incidents. AHA and our members intend to keep an unrelenting focus on providing better, safer care to our patients—working in close partnership with the federal government and with each other.”