More than 50 hospitals participate in enhanced communication project
By The Star Staff
The Puerto Rico Hospitals Association announced Sunday that more than 50 hospitals are currently participating in the relaunch of the “QIP” project, an initiative that allows medical teams to directly communicate necessary information and key points of projects that they discuss day by day.
QIP offers the opportunity for live participation and discussion, in particular on matters related to maintaining the quality of services at the high levels expected of a hospital institution.
“The QIP Project, previously known as ‘Innovation Network for Hospital Improvements,’ is a working tool that involves the participation of some 50 hospitals on the island, all members of the Puerto Rico Hospitals Association. As a significant element, the initiative seeks to involve insurers simultaneously,” said Pedro González, executive vice president of the Puerto Rico Hospitals Association. “There is no doubt that this relaunch of the quality program promoted by our organization includes an intense program of services that allows, at the same time, providing continuity to the new trends in terms of requirements of the accrediting agencies, compliance with the quality indicators of the insurers and, not least, the use and integration of technology as a tool to maintain high quality in the services provided in our hospital institutions.”
“The application of these programs allows hospitals to implement evidence-based practices, with a focus on prevention, whose results produce the reduction of adverse events,” he added. “It is important to announce that the new phase of the project will last three years.”
The HIIN Project (Hospital Improvement Innovation Network) emerged in 2017 and lasted until 2020, with the purpose of continuing and promoting learning, as well as the use of best practices and the dissemination of information among participating hospitals. It was sponsored by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
“The results offered, for the end of 2020, present amazing positive results, evidenced with ‘data’ demonstrating that teamwork allows the establishment or strengthening of a safety culture, above all, significant improvements in events that may affect both patients and the institution itself,” González continued. “For example, the results from the year 2020 show an improvement of 70% in cases of postoperative venous thromboembolism. Hospital-acquired infections showed a 52% drop, adverse events related to medication administration reflected a decrease of 31%, pneumonia associated with events related to mechanical ventilators showed an improvement of 31%, infections in surgical wounds showed a decrease of 27% and falls with damage in the hospital were reduced by 20%.”
The organization announced that it will continue to hold events that allow the discussion and promotion of alliances with medical teams, organizations and their leaders to promote the reduction of harm to patients through the implementation of effective evidence-based practices in hospitals in Puerto Rico. It was also noted that the main objective is to implement prevention practices, based on no harm to patients, and validate or show their effectiveness with robust data that helps demonstrate the combined efforts of the human teams working in hospitals.