Patient Safety

Patient safety is a top priority at HealthPlus of Michigan. We encourage our members to actively participate in their personal health care and that of their families. The following are some organizations also working to improve patient safety. HealthPlus recommends visiting the organizations' respective websites for detailed information on this very important issue.

The Leapfrog Group
Composed of more than 160 public and private organizations that provide health care benefits, The Leapfrog Group works with medical experts throughout the U.S. to identify problems and propose solutions it believes will improve hospital systems that could break down and harm patients. Representing approximately 34 million health care consumers in all 50 states, Leapfrog provides important information and solutions for consumers and health care providers.

The Leapfrog Group’s mission is to trigger giant “leaps” forward in the safety, quality and affordability of health care by:

• Supporting informed health care decisions by those who use and pay for health care and,
• Promoting high-value health care through incentives and rewards

The Leapfrog Group identified certain hospital quality and safety practices as the focus of its health care provider performance comparisons and hospital recognition and reward program. Leapfrog constituents believe these three patient safety practices could save up to 58,300 lives per year and prevent 522,000 medication errors. Based on independent scientific evidence, the quality practices are:

Computer Physician Order Entry (CPOE): With CPOE systems, hospital staff enter medication orders via computer linked to prescribing error prevention software. CPOE has been shown to reduce serious prescribing errors in hospitals by more than 50 percent.

Evidence-Based Hospital Referral (EHR): Consumers and health care purchasers should choose hospitals with extensive experience and the best results with certain high-risk surgeries and conditions. Leapfrog promotes referring patients needing certain complex medical procedures to hospitals offering the best survival odds based on scientifically valid criteria, such as the number of times a hospital performs these procedures each year or other process or outcomes data. Research indicates that a patient’s risk of dying could be reduced by 40 percent.

Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Physician Staffing (IPS): Staffing ICUs with doctors who have special training in critical care medicine, called ”intensivists,” has been shown to reduce the risk of patients dying in the ICU by 40 percent.

Leapfrog Quality Index - The National Quality Forum’s 30 Safe Practices:
In 2004, Leapfrog added the National Quality Forum Safe Practices to its list of patient safety initiatives. According to Leapfrog, promoting the additional NQF “leap” provides a broad range of practices that can improve patient safety in both urban and rural hospitals. Leapfrog added the NQF practices based on a 2003 publication, “Safe Practices for Better Healthcare: A Consensus Report," for which a diverse group of health care stakeholders culled 30 key patient safety practices from an original 220.

The National Quality Forum Safe Practices include 30 “common-sense” practices, such as:

• Creating a culture of safety whereby hospital employees can report safety issues and work towards improvements without blame.
• Pharmacists being available for consultation with prescribers on medication ordering, interpretation, and overall medication use.
• Recording of verbal orders with read back to the prescriber.
• Hand washing with either a hygienic hand rub or a disinfectant soap prior to direct contact with the patient and objects around the patient.

Leapfrog will publish ratings of local hospital based on responses to all of the Leapfrog measurers, including the NQF. While Leapfrog does not expect all hospitals to meet each one of the NQF guidelines, it encourages hospitals to adopt new practices and update results at any time during the year.

For more information about Leapfrog, including a full list of the NQF safe practices, check out the Leapfrog or NQF websites at www.leapfroggroup.org or www.qualityforum.org.

To view a chart of Leapfrog ratings for HealthPlus-affiliated hospitals, click here.

To use the Leapfrog Web site's Quality and Safety Survey Results search tool, click here.

Department of Health and Human Services – Hospital Compare

THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES is the United States government's principal agency for protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services, especially for those who are least able to help themselves.  Hospital Compare is a tool that provides you with information on how well the hospitals in your area care for all their adult patients with certain medical conditions. Hospital Compare was created through the efforts of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Department of Health and Human Services, and other members of the Hospital Quality Alliance: Improving Care Through Information (HQA). The information on the Hospital Compare website has been provided primarily by hospitals that have agreed to submit quality information for Hospital Compare to make public.

Through Hospital Compare, you can compare hospitals in your area on the care of:

• Heart Attack
• Heart Failure
• Pneumonia
• Surgical Care Improvement / Surgical Infection Prevention

Talk to your doctor about this information to help you, your family and your friends make your best hospital care decisions.  To access Hospital Compare, click here.

For additional support on choosing the right hospital, HealthPlus members can log into the HealthPlus Member Online Service Center to access Subimo Healthcare Advisor SM.  With Healthcare Advisor HealthPlus members can:

• Choose a hospital.  The Healthcare Advisor can help users choose a hospital by comparing important factors like experience, reputation and results of care.
• Learn about treatment options.  Members and physicians can find clear, accurate information about treatment options, medical procedures, possible complications and risks, and average recovery times.
• Access tools and resources.  The Treatment Cost Advisor helps members and physicians to estimate what you can expect to pay for a wide range of services such as physician visits, diagnostic tests or treatment for a particular condition. The Hospital Advisor also allows a comparison between hospitals on specific treatment options

The Michigan Health & Safety Coalition
The Michigan Health & Safety Coalition (MH&SC) is a collaborative quality improvement effort focused on improving patient safety in Michigan. The mission of the coalition is to help improve health care quality in Michigan through cost-effective improvements in patient safety, including medical errors, across all health care settings.

Governor Jennifer M. Granholm invited the Michigan Health and Safety Coalition (MH&SC) to accept the role of the State Commission on Patient Safety. The commission was created by PA 119-04, enacted in 2004. MH&SC is honored to be selected to serve the State of Michigan in this capacity and accepted the invitation at its meeting of September 8. The commission has been conducting public hearings and will write a report containing recommendations for improvements in medical practice and a system for reducing errors, both in health facilities and in private practice.

MH&SC membership is diverse, and includes representatives from health care plans, health care providers, and employer and union groups. The goal of the coalition is to improve the safety of health care for Michigan residents. For more information on the Michigan Health & Safety Coalition and its efforts to improve patient safety, visit its website at www.mihealthandsafety.org.

To view patient safety and other information on Michigan hospitals, click here.

The Michigan Hospital Association
The Michigan Hospital Association MHA is a statewide association dedicated to improving the health of Michigan residents through collaborative efforts with health care providers, community agencies and citizens.

The MHA has developed the Michigan Hospital Report. This year’s edition is the eighth voluntary release of hospital data by the MHA and its members.

Measurement of a hospital’s actual performance against its expected performance is an excellent way to help the hospital improve. In addition, the report shows each hospital’s mortality rates and lengths of stay for common medical and surgical cases.

With the Michigan Hospital Report, hospitals and health systems demonstrate their continued commitment to helping Michigan residents become better-informed health care consumers. This report also demonstrates hospital’s ongoing commitment to using public data to improve their performance.


For more information on MHA, visit its website at www.mha.org.

Other Resources
More patient safety information is available from the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality (AHRQ) at www.ahrq.gov or the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Plans at www.jcaho.org.