Minnesota Hospitals Take Intentional Steps To Prevent Adverse Health Events

" Minnesota hospitals have taken very intentional steps to prevent all adverse events, not just those that result in serious harm as reflected in this report," Massa said. The Minnesota Hospital Association's call-to-action framework has been a successful model to prevent adverse health events. For example:

• Data collected by MHA is showing a 31 percent decrease in falls across all levels of patient harm.
• The reporting system identified that pressure ulcers were happening under devices such as cervical collars and oxygen tubing and masks. In early 2011, MHA expanded its SAFE SKIN campaign to provide best practices for hospitals to prevent device-related pressure ulcers. This year, the most serious pressure ulcers declined 8 percent. Overall, hospitals have experienced a 45 percent reduction in stage II – unstageable pressure ulcers .

" Minnesota has been a leader in developing innovative programs to improve patient safety and deliver quality health care," said Jennifer Lundblad, president and CEO of Stratis Health, a quality improvement organization. "In our collaborative environment, we have combined resources across the health care community to build greater momentum for improvement. Together, we've used the science of human factors to understand what leads to errors, fostered organizational culture that focuses on safety, and developed comprehensive programs to prevent adverse events."

The adverse events described in this report are extremely rare. Minnesota hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers performed 2.5 million surgeries and procedures last year and provided care for roughly 2.6 million patient days — the cumulative number of days patients received care.

The Minnesota Hospital Association, in collaboration with other health care partners, will continue to help hospitals create a culture of safety through best practices that expands across health care settings and serves as a foundation for successful patient safety and quality improvement efforts. Minnesota's leadership on patient safety and quality is recognized throughout the nation, and other states look to us in creating their own patient safety programs.

"Despite the exceptional work that is taking place in our hospitals, we know there is more work to be done," said Massa. "We will continue to challenge ourselves to do better and we will share learnings from these events to help identify and implement best practices to prevent these types of events from reoccurring."

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