UHC's Hospital Engagement Network Prevents More Than 23,000 Harmful Hospital Events Among Participants

CHICAGO, May 19, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Member hospitals participating in UHC's Hospital Engagement Network (HEN) have made significant improvements in patient care, resulting in the prevention of 23,105 harmful or undesirable hospital-related events and readmissions.

UHC was selected in 2010 to serve as a HEN in the Partnership for Patients initiative being conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS') Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. Data from UHC's Clinical Data Base/Resource Manager™ indicate that since 2010 more than 90 UHC HEN participants avoided harmful events and their associated costs by reducing readmission rates and the incidence of hospital-acquired infections, resulting in shorter hospital stays, fewer hospital visits, and better-quality care.

To achieve the improvements, UHC's HEN members have spent the last 3 years implementing performance improvement strategies to meet 2 primary goals of the initiative: reducing hospital-acquired conditions by 40% and hospital readmissions by 20% by the end of 2014. 

UHC HEN members have decreased Medicare 30-day all-cause readmission rates by 6.3% and have seen significant reductions in the incidence of adverse drug events, device-related infections, injuries related to falls and immobility, obstetrical adverse events, and surgical site infections. Participating hospitals have also implemented successful patient engagement programs that have personalized patient experiences, and have established new data structures and proactive processes to help keep patients from returning to the hospital.

Member hospitals have credited their successes to the improvement collaboratives, educational sessions, and conferences offered by UHC, as well as the opportunities UHC provides for networking with other members and learning about hundreds of case studies and health care improvement stories.

The success of UHC's HEN is due in part to UHC's Performance Intelligence™ program, which offers an extensive suite of performance solutions to academic medical centers and their community hospital partners nationwide.

"We are privileged to collaborate with our members in this national initiative, which is elevating the delivery of health care and achieving the goals of Partnership for Patients," said Julie Cerese, UHC senior vice president, Performance Improvement. "This is a natural extension of the UHC Performance Intelligence™ improvement work and supports the performance improvement priorities of our members."

Recently, HHS announced that the latest data on quality improvements in HENs nationwide showed that participating hospitals had saved 15,000 lives, prevented 560,000 patient injuries, and saved $4 billion in health care–related spending.

UHC member hospitals can still join the UHC HEN. For more information, contact Cathy Krsek at (312) 775-4238.

About UHC

UHC is an alliance of the nation's leading nonprofit academic medical centers, which are focused on delivering world-class patient care. Formed in 1984 and based in Chicago, Ill, UHC fosters collaboration with and among its 120 academic medical center and 307 affiliated hospital members through its renowned solutions in the areas of performance improvement, product innovation, supply chain management, strategic research, and public policy. UHC helps its members achieve excellence in quality, safety, and cost-effectiveness. UHC's membership includes the leading nonprofit academic medical centers in the United States. For more information, visit uhc.edu.

SOURCE UHC