At least 50 Georgia medical providers and health care groups are among hundreds of organizations nationwide joining forces to tackle patient safety issues that cost billions of dollars each year.
Launched earlier this month, the Partnership for Patients program aims to help save 60,000 lives and up to $35 billion over the next three years by eliminating preventable injuries and complications -- making care safer and less costly. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will invest up to $1 billion in the effort.
"If we want to succeed, we need everyone to contribute to this process," said Anton Gunn, the department's Region IV director.
More than 1,700 hospitals, employers, physicians, consumer organizations and other groups have signed on so far nationwide. In Georgia, Atlanta Medical Center, WellStar Health System, the Emory Clinic, the Georgia Academy of Family Physicians and others have joined up.
The program has two goals -- decreasing preventable hospital-acquired conditions by 40 percent and reducing hospital readmissions 20 percent by 2013.
The network will be a resource for hospitals and other providers to share new models of care delivery and quality measures, said Gunn, who spoke at a Georgia Medical Care Foundation event Tuesday. "The more information you have, the better decisions you make."
The effort could save Medicare $10 billion in the next three years alone, said Renard Murray, administrator of the Atlanta and Dallas regional offices of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
The partnership fits into a larger effort to improve quality of care, including the new Hospital Compare database for consumers, Murray said.
"We have to put the patient first," he said.
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