New to PatientCareLink:

• Latest Success Story: BIDMC and Winchester Hospital Tackle Patient Safety
• QUALITY SERIES REPORT: Summary of Trends in Nurse Staffing in Massachusetts Acute Care Hospitals. Read full report here.
• Scholarship for Allied Health Professionals! Please see "Scholarship and Educational Opportunities" tab under "Workforce" section on PatientCareLink website for more information.
• AHRQ Patient Safety Education and Training Catalog: The Patient Safety Education and Training Catalog consists of 333 patient safety programs available in the United States as of November 28, 2011. Check "Hospital Resources" under "Improving Patient Care" for more helpful tools!  

MHA Advisory: ALL Hospitals: End-of-Life MOLST Initiative Expands

Quick Summary

• Efforts are underway to expand the physician- and hospital-led Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (MOLST) initiative.
• A completed MOLST form, signed by the patient (or surrogate) and the patient's physician, nurse practitioner or physician assistant, is a transferable medical order that is designed to ensure that the preferences of patients with serious advancing illness are respected across care settings.
• MHA encourages all hospital members to honor patients' MOLST forms, integrate MOLST into institutional policies, and ensure staff are trained in the program.
• More information is available at www.molst-ma.org. 

Please click here to go to the Massachusetts Hospital Association's website to view the entire Advisory.  

Massachusetts Hospital Association Kicks off Its Hospital Engagement Network (HEN) in Association with AHA's Health Research & Educational Trust

Thirty-one Massachusetts hospitals have joined the Massachusetts Hospital Association (MHA) in an effort to improve patient care and reduce healthcare costs throughout the commonwealth. MHA is coordinating a Hospital Engagement Network (HEN) in Massachusetts as part of the federal Partnership for Patients (PfP) Campaign, which has as its stated goals to reduce inpatient harm by 40 percent and cut readmissions by 20 percent at participating hospitals.

MHA has been awarded a two-year contract in partnership with the Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET), an affiliate of the American Hospital Association (AHA), to support the PfP campaign. MHA is one of 34 hospital associations nationwide that are working with HRET on this effort.

Read more

MHA's Statewide Performance Improvement Agenda

Patient safety and high quality care are priorities at Massachusetts hospitals, and Bay State hospitals are national leaders in voluntary reporting of patient quality and safety information. But Massachusetts hospitals are committed to doing even more to improve healthcare quality and patient safety. The MHA Board of Trustees has unanimously endorsed an association-wide initiative to move beyond public reporting and transparency to make measurable, concrete improvements in hospitals' performance. MHA is proud to announce its Statewide Performance Improvement Agenda focused on three strategic performance priorities. Our goal is for Massachusetts hospitals to collectively:

Improve Quality by reducing preventable mortality
• Data
• Improving Care

Improve Efficiency by reducing preventable readmissions

• Data
• Improving Care

Improve Safety by reducing in central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI)

• Data
• Improving Care

To view a list of hospitals whose boards of directors have signed on to the Statewide Performance Improvement Agenda, click here. 


On the linked pages, you will find data and descriptions of efforts by hospitals and collaborating organizations to meet these goals. We will work to obtain and display the best and most timely measure data to gauge our progress toward these goals, and we welcome suggestions for practical ways to better measure and document that progress.