Erie County Medical Center and Medina Memorial Selected to Participate in National Quality Improveme

Nurses from ECMC and Medina will develop innovations to improve quality of care

Program is part of effort to align local forces for improved health care quality

Buffalo – The P² Collaborative announced today that Erie County Medical Center and Medina Memorial Health Care System have been selected by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to participate in a new effort to improve the quality of care in hospitals. The program will help nurses and other frontline staff identify, test and implement changes that will improve the quality and safety of patient care in their medical and surgical units.

The program is part of RWJF’s Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q) initiative, a cornerstone of the Foundation’s $300 million commitment to improving quality in specific regions across the United States. The P² Collaborative coordinates local efforts for the program. Western New York was selected last year as one of 14 communities nationwide.

The new nurse-led program is based on successful pilot efforts by the Foundation to transform care at the bedside, by making hospital staff who spend the most time directly caring for patients the key drivers of quality improvement. Hospitals that have already participated in the program report a cultural shift on their medical-surgical units that has produced better clinical outcomes, more time spent with patients by staff, and lower turnover of nursing jobs.

“We know that the quality of health care can be improved in every community in the nation, and the more people who get involved, the more likely we are to succeed,” said Shelley Hirshberg, Executive Director of the P² Collaborative. “Having local hospital leaders involved in our efforts is an important part of our strategy to improving quality of care. Not only will they learn new ways to improve care in our community, but they will be sharing what works in our community with other hospitals around the nation that need our insights.”

Experts say the effort to transform care at the bedside is unusual in its focus on engaging nurses and other frontline staff to develop and lead the quality improvement efforts. Ideas for improving care come not from the hospital’s executives, but from the nurses who treat patients every day. Nurse-led teams identify where change is needed on their unit, suggest and test potential solutions, and decide whether and how those innovations should be implemented.

We are excited to be chosen as one of the select hospitals participating in the TCAB Collaborative and look forward to working with the P² Collaborative to share and spread our success to improve quality,” said Brian Banas, Vice President of Patient Care at Medina Memorial Health Care System. “This is a unique initiative that offers us a new way to approach quality improvement.”

“Because they spend so much of their day with patients and their families, our nurses are in unique positions to know exactly how quality can be enhances from both the clinical and operational perspectives,” said Bonnie Ann Glica, RN, NS, Senior Vice President of Nursing for Erie County Medican Center Corporation. “Nothing is more important than high-quality care and I’m glad out team was selected to be part of this effort.”

Led by RWJF, the TCAB Collaborative will be overseen by The Center for Health Care Quality at The George Washington University Medical Center School of Public Health and Health Services, which serves as the national program office for the Aligning Forces for Quality Initiative. Technical assistance will be provided by the American Organization of Nurse Executives. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement will convene training workshops for participants. The first cohort will kick-off this month and the second cohort launches fall of 2009.

In every region involved in the Aligning Forces for Quality initiative including Western New York, broad-based teams of people who get care, give care, and pay for care are working together to improve health care quality. By aligning people from across the community in difference AF4Q initiatives, the P² Collaborative hopes to help achieve community-wide transformation of health care.

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The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focuses on the pressing health and health care issues facing our country. As the nation’s largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to improving the health and health care of all Americans, the Foundation works with a diverse group of organizations and individuals to identify solutions and achieve comprehensive, meaningful and timely change. For more than 35 years, the Foundation has brought experience, commitment, and a rigorous, balanced approach to the problems that affect the health and health care of those it serves. By helping Americans lead healthier lives and get the care they need, the Foundation expects to make a difference in our lifetime. For more information, visit www.rwjf.org