PHILADELPHIA – The Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM)’s Center for Quality Improvement (QI) has been distinguished by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for maintaining an ongoing collaborative partnership with CMS to enhance patient safety.
The letter of recognition from Paul McGann, MD, Jean Moody-Williams, RN, MPP, and Dennis Wagner, MPA, of the CMS, to Jenna Goldstein, MA, director of SHM’s Center for QI, and Kevin Vuernick, MPA, senior project manager, noted: “Over the last several years, our team has been privileged to partner with you and the Society of Hospital Medicine on the work of quality improvement and patient safety. Without relationships like these, the results in the reduction of patient harm we have seen at a national scale, saving 87,000 lives and nearly $20 billion in cost savings, would never have been possible.”
Kevin Vuernick, MPA, senior project manager, and Jenna Goldstein, MA, director of SHM’s Center for QI
“This recognition by CMS demonstrates the tangible impact that SHM has not only on its members, but also on their patients and their institutions,” said Beth Hawley, MBA, SFHM, FACHE, chief operating officer of SHM. “We look forward to even more partnerships that can ultimately lead to improved patient care.”
In August 2016, CMS’ Hospital Improvement Innovation Networks contacted SHM to participate in their weekly Partnership for Patients (PfP) Pacing Event webinar to present strategies for reducing opioid use and preventing adverse drug events, including SHM’s Mentored Implementation pilot program on Reducing Adverse Drug Events Related to Opioids (RADEO). SHM’s contribution to this webinar was twofold: Thomas W. Frederickson, MD, the lead author of the RADEO guide and one of two program mentors, spoke about the development of the RADEO program and its importance in the acute care setting. Matthew Jared, MD, a hospitalist at St. Anthony Hospital in Oklahoma City, one of the five pilot RADEO sites, discussed his experience implementing specific RADEO interventions as well as the mentoring provided by Dr. Frederickson of the department of hospital medicine at CHI Health in Omaha, Neb.
As a result of this successful partnership, SHM was contacted in January to provide its perspective on best practices in managing inpatients receiving opioids and adverse drug event data collection. At that time, Mr. Vuernick discussed the lessons learned between RADEO’s pilot program and the second iteration of RADEO, which launched in November 2016.
“[SHM’s] Center for QI is extremely proud to be at the forefront of addressing opioid use and monitoring of patients receiving opioids and is honored to be recognized for the work that it has done,” Mr. Vuernick said, “We are looking forward to new opportunities to partner with the CMS on their PfP events, as well as continuing to work to ensure patient safety in the hospital.”
For more information about SHM’s Center for QI, please visit www.hospitalmedicine.org/QI. For more information about SHM and hospital medicine, visit www.hospitalmedicine.org and follow SHM on Twitter at @SHMLive.