Ohio Children’s Hospital Association touts quality improvement effort

Three years after forming the nation’s first statewide children’s hospital quality collaborative, the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association is reporting significant quality improvement (Source: “Children's hospitals find ways to improve quality,” Business Courier of Cincinnati, June 4, 2009).

Since it was organized in 2006, OCHA’s Quality Improvement Collaborative has focused on reducing preventable cardiac and pulmonary arrests occurring outside of the neonatal and pediatric intensive care units. The collaborative identified a medical protocol it calls a Rapid Response Team that has reduced preventable incidents by more than 46 percent, according to results released by OCHA (pdf, 2 pages) on Thursday.

“While all six member hospitals have long been leaders in quality innovation individually, this is the first time nationally that a statewide group of children’s hospitals has come together in a collaborative manner to improve quality in a measurable, meaningful way,” said Bill Considine, chairman of OCHA and CEO of Akron Children’s Hospital. “We are thrilled by the solid, tangible results to date and look forward to identifying new areas where we can improve quality efforts.”