HPOE.org - Topic Areas

Care Coordination

Hospitals are often expected to coordinate patient care involving multiple providers and facilities. Without effective systems for relaying patient information between settings, a patient's continuity of care can be disrupted, resulting in readmissions, duplicative services, conflicting recommendations, greater potential for error and patient harm and higher overall costs.
Emerging models of care coordination are designed to provide high quality, patient-and family-centered care while controlling ove...

Health Care Acquired Infections

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), each year, U.S. hospitals experience 1.7 million health-care associated infections (HAIs), causing roughly 99,000 deaths at a cost of $37 to $45 billion. However, hospitals are making strides to reduce, and in some cases eliminate, HAIs. In addition, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) and the Am...

Health Information Technology

Health Information Technology (HIT) is an increasingly central component of care delivery, linking providers and patients with the information they need in a timely and efficient manner. The effective use of HIT and electronic health records (EHRs) can streamline processes and improve quality of patient care when properly implemented. In addition, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) both include several provisions aime...

Medication Management

Since 2000, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has received more than 95,000 reports of medication errors. Medication errors can occur any time, in any step of the delivery process. Understanding the types and causes of medication errors can help hospitals identify gaps in the medication management process and allow them to take actions to help make patients safer. Most medication errors are not caused by indiv...

Patient Safety

Safety is always first in the minds of all health care workers, yet few organizations create safety cultures. Creating systems that provide safe, reliable care is what high reliability organizations strive to achieve. HPOE has identified several HROs and highlights their case studies, along with a list of tools and resources available to all hospitals in their journey to patient safety excellence.

In his 1997 work, "Managing the Risks of Organizational Accidents," James Reason illustrated the key...

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Patient Throughput

A hospital's ability to optimize capacity is largely determined by how efficiently their processes and operations are managed.

The ED is one entry point for care that is typically cited as an initial bottleneck in the overall system. In 2008, the Centers of Disease Control reported that the average time that patients wait to see a doctor in hospital emergency rooms had grown from about 38 minutes to almost an hour between...

Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that more than 2 million health care-acquired infections occur in U.S. hospitals each year and approximately 99,000 patients who get these infections die as a result. HAIs also result in $4.5 billion in excess health care costs annually. The AHA's Health Resources & Educational Trust, through a contract with the

Health Care Equity

Health disparities-from access to care to health outcomes-affect a growing segment of the U.S. population. The AHA, through its Hospitals in Pursuit of Excellence strategic platform, is committed to helping the hospital field improve the care provided to all persons and eliminating disparities in care. Recently the Adverse Events in Hospitals:...