News
Lombardy Regional Health Service selects JCI to assess care quality
and patient safety
4 March 2008
Italy's Lombardy Regional Health Service (RHS) has extended its
partnership with the US-based non-profit organisation, Joint Commission
International (JCI), to monitor the quality of care in the Region for a
further three years.
The partnership will analyze the quality of care in the region's 190
public and private hospitals, and standardize the continuity of care
between the hospitals, the 15 local health authorities (LHAs) that
govern the hospitals, and community-based services and healthcare
organisations.
The project also includes a transfer of know-how to the LHAs to
provide constant monitoring of the system and quality improvement
projects.
Building on a set about 60 JCI standards implemented between 2004 and
2007, JCI will help RHS-accredited hospitals to identify and implement a
new set of standards and measure and self-assess outcomes.
In addition to the care continuum, the new standards will focus
largely on improving patient safety, with a strong emphasis on the
International Patient Safety Goals, the Patient Safety Solutions, the
assessment and care of patients in high-risk settings, such as
anaesthesia and surgical care, and medication management.
The partnership's goal is to achieve better qualitative performances
and improve the effective transfer and care of patients among all
healthcare organizations in the Lombardy RHS.
The collaboration with JCI is in response to the Lombardy Region's
institutional goal of establishing a continuous quality improvement
process and raising standards in meeting the healthcare needs of its
more than nine million citizens.
A team of JCI consultants, including clinical and administrative
experts, will work directly with the hospitals and LHAs to help
implement quality improvement processes and subsequently assess the
progress of each individual organisation for compliance with the
identified standards.
JCI consultants also provide detailed comparative analysis to the
Region and all 190 hospitals and 15 LHAs on a regular basis, comparing
each structure's performance with a similar group. The hospitals and
LHAs submit online self-assessments to the Region on a quarterly basis
and outline and track the progress of related quality improvement
projects.
"The partnership with the region of Lombardy is groundbreaking in
that it is bringing the focus of quality and patient safety to the
international community," said Karen Timmons, JCI president and CEO.
"The Lombardy Region is proud of the project in partnership with the
Joint Commission International, which signals another point in favour of
the citizens of the territory," said Dr Luciano Bresciani, Lombardy
Region Health Minister. "Therefore, this new project we are inaugurating
with JCI pushes us to demand even more from our own health system,
taking quality monitoring directly to the patient.
JCI first partnered with Lombardy in 2004 as part of the region's
initial effort to develop a consolidated healthcare assessment system
among its public and private hospitals. As a result of the first
partnership, Lombardy hospitals showed significant improvement in:
- informed consent;
- continuity of care in hospital discharge within communities;
- patient hand-off communication; and
- credentialing processes for physicians and nurses.
The new phase of this partnership will continue until 2010, with the
priorities being the development and consolidation of quality programs,
educating hospitals on assessment techniques and promotion, and
dissemination of quality projects for the continuity of patient care
services.
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