Hospital Improvement and Innovation Network

Children's Mercy is part of the Children’s Hospitals Solution for Patient Safety (SPS), a national effort to prevent serious harm in pediatric patients.

Among other hospital associations, quality improvement organizations, and health system organizations, SPS was awarded funds from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to continue their efforts to reduce hospital acquired conditions and preventable readmissions that was initially funded through the Partnership for Patients and Hospital Engagement Network initiatives. The new initiative is called the Hospital Improvement and Innovation Networks (HIIN).

The HIIN Program

This program focuses on preventing the following:

• Adverse drug events

• Central line-associated blood stream infections

• Catheter-associated urinary tract infections

• Clostridium difficile infection

• Injury from falls and immobility

• Pressure ulcers

• Sepsis and septic shock

• Surgical site infections

• Venous thromboembolism

• Ventilator-associated events

• Readmissions 
  
  

Solution for Patient Safety

In addition, SPS will focus on the following:

• Peripheral intravenous infiltration and extravasations

• Unplanned extubations

• Acute kidney injury

• Serious safety events

• Staff/employee safety patient and family engagement

• Disclosure of events to families

• Health care disparities
  
  

Achieving high safety standards

The mission of SPS is working together to eliminate serious harm across all children’s hospitals. The network hospitals use high reliability principles to increase the how often evidence based practices are completed for a patient who is at risk in order to prevent the occurrence of a hospital acquired condition. In addition, when an event occurs, these hospitals investigate the details that contributed to learn and implement changes in their processes. Finally, the guiding principles for the network include:

• Leadership Matters

• Our mission motivates all that we do

• Network hospital will NOT compete on safety

• “All Teach, All Learn”

• Network hospitals must commit to building a “culture of safety”