Partnership for Patients Program

The U.S. HHS on May 5 unveiled a $1 billion Partnership for Patients Program to cut down on medical errors and enhance patient care values. Through the program, $500 million will be disbursed by the HHS to test different models for improving patient care to reduce hospital-acquired conditions. The partnership will ask hospitals to focus on nine types of errors and complications, including adverse drug reactions, pressure ulcers, child-birth complications and surgical site infections. The other $500 million will be spent on grants to community-based organizations that come up with ways to keep patients compliant and healthy after they are discharged from the hospital. Locally Baylor University Medical Center will be at the forefront of this innovative initiative. If the pilot is successful, the initiative is estimated to save up to $35 billion a year, including $10 billion in Medicare.

Information Based on the May 31, 2011, Edition of The Dallas Morning News
The Partnership for Patients Program has set two important goals to achieve by the end of 2013:

(I) Aiming to keep hospital patients from getting sicker or injured and the reduction goal targeted is 40% (1.8 million fewer injuries and 60,000 lives saved)

(II) Striving toward reducing hospital re-admissions by 20% (1.6 million)