Kansas hospitals participated in the campaign conducted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Partnership for Patients program involving more than 3,700 hospitals nationally. The Kansas HEN 2.0 was managed by the Kansas Healthcare Collaborative, on behalf of the Kansas Hospital Association in partnership with the AHA/HRET and more than 30 other state hospital associations.
HEN 2.0 continued a national initiative with the ambitious goal to reduce adverse events by 40 percent and readmissions by 20 percent. Hospitals worked together to make improvements in processes and outcomes for 10 or more core patient safety areas, such as the prevention of falls, infections and adverse drug events.
In HEN 2.0, Kansas’ most impactful 40/20 successes were in the focus areas of CAUTI (catheter associated urinary tract infections), CLABSI (central line associated bloodstream infections), and EED (early elective deliveries). Through 2016, Kansas hospitals improved patient care by reducing CLABSI by 55 percent, CAUTI by 28 percent, and EED by 70 percent. Through teamwork, accountability and leadership, in less than 12 months, the Kansas HEN 2.0 resulted in prevention of an estimated 234 harms at an estimated health care cost savings of more than $1.6 million.
The national HEN as well as the Kansas HEN provided education and resources to Kansas hospitals, including evidence-based practice protocols for reducing harm, technical assistance and consultation specific to a hospital’s needs, nationally and locally-renowned subject matter experts providing the latest information and the opportunity for peer-to-peer learning.
Throughout the course of the one-year project, hospitals in the AHA/HRET HEN 2.0 network prevented over 34,000 harms and contributed to more than $288 million in cost savings. Results of its collective efforts are available in a final report at www.hret-hen.org.