WHAT: UPMC and the Patient Safety Movement Coalition will showcase progress being made in improving patient safety and underscore their continuing support for the Partnership for Patients, created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). 

 

WHY: More than 3,000,000 people worldwide, including 200,000 people in the U.S., die every year in hospitals in ways that could have been prevented. The Patient Safety Movement Coalition and UPMC are committed to reducing that number to zero and support the Partnership for Patients, an initiative established by the ACA in 2010 to save lives by averting hospital acquired conditions (HACs) and reducing hospital readmissions. At the core of the initiative are 17 Hospital Engagement Networks that partner with more than 3,200 hospitals nationwide to identify best practices and solutions. The Department of Health and Human Services reports that HACs declined by 17 percent from 2010 to 2014—equating to 87,000 patient lives saved and nearly $20 billion in savings for taxpayers.

 

 

• Joe Kiani, founder of the Patient Safety Movement Coalition, affiliated with the Patient Safety Movement Foundation. The coalition works with government leaders and hospitals to increase transparency in health care and to help hospitals implement evidence-based patient safety solutions.

 

• Paul E. Phrampus, M.D., medical director, patient safety, UPMC; and medical director Donald D. Wolff, Jr. Center for Quality, Safety, and Innovation at UPMC. He will discuss the recent progress that UPMC has made in reducing HACs and improving care transitions—part of commitments made through the Patient Safety Movement Foundation in its drive to reduce preventable hospital deaths in the U.S. to zero by 2020. 

 

• Todd Pollock, director of quality, UPMC Presbyterian-Shadyside.

 

 

WHERE: Peter M. Winter Institute for Simulation, Education, and Research, 230 McKee Place, Pittsburgh, 15213.

 

Note: Media planning to attend should contact Allison Hydzik at 412-647-9975 or HydzikAM@upmc.edu.