Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) today announced the launch of a unique patient safety and quality project and named Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., as the pilot hospital for the new program.
Through the project, Humana will monitor certain safety and quality goals already established at the hospital. These goals will be reviewed annually by Humana over three years. As the program's safety and quality goals are accomplished yearly, Humana will recognize Baptist by continuing to fund nursing scholarships at the Baptist College of Health Sciences. The first of those scholarship awards was announced today.
"We're very proud to partner with Baptist on this project because they have a progressive, highly effective patient safety program," said Jonathan T. Lord, M.D., Humana senior vice president and chief clinical strategy and innovation officer. "This partnership will increase consumer confidence and trust in the nation's health care system. And this will help us better understand how to build productive relationships between health systems and health plans."
In deciding the safety and quality goals for the program, Humana and Baptist tried to be responsive to the challenges posed by The Leapfrog Group, Lord said. A leading group of Fortune 500 companies and other large health care purchasers founded The Leapfrog Group by creating and committing to a common set of purchasing principles to drive leaps in patient safety.
Humana and Baptist chose standards that relate to the areas of interest to the employers involved in Leapfrog: management of intensive care units and performance of certain selected high-risk procedures. Another area of focus in the program will be safe medication use.
"Baptist is a perfect match for this partnership because the organization is a national leader in patient safety and quality initiatives and has a reputation for having made this issue an organizational priority from the board level to the bedside nurse," Lord said.
Some of Baptist's current safety and quality initiatives include those targeted at safe medication use, legibility of medication orders, pain management and falls. Understanding that working with patients and their family members is key for maximizing patient safety and quality at the hospital, Baptist is creating a series of brochures called Your Partner for Better Health. Each piece focuses on a different patient safety issue, and they are provided to patients throughout Baptist's 17 hospitals in Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi.
Baptist has been recognized nationally for its patient safety and quality efforts. Two of the hospital's safe medication use programs are now finalists for the 2001 National Hospital Pharmacy Quality Award. In 2000, Baptist's Medication System Variance project was also a finalist for the same award. In addition, Baptist's leadership is active in organizations that are working to enhance the quality of patient care. Baptist's president and CEO, Stephen C. Reynolds, serves as chairperson of the National Committee for Quality Health Care.
"Baptist and Humana are partnering to create a higher standard for health care," Reynolds said. "We're committed to our patients and to challenging ourselves to finding new ways to constantly enhance their care. And we're thrilled that through this program, we'll be able to offer scholarships to future nurses. This is not only a gift to those students, but an investment into the future of health care itself." After completing the launch at Baptist, Humana plans to take this same concept and partner with other health care organizations around the country. Humana Inc., headquartered in Louisville, Ky., is one of the nation's largest publicly traded health benefits companies, with approximately 6.4 million medical members located primarily in 18 states and Puerto Rico. Humana offers coordinated health insurance coverage and related services through traditional and Internet based plans -- to employer groups and government-sponsored plans.
Baptist Memorial Health Care is an integrated health care delivery system offering a full continuum of care to communities throughout Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas. Baptist is home to many world-renowned physicians, and the system has received numerous national awards, such as being among U.S. News & World Report's "America's Best Hospitals." With the intention of caring for people close to their homes, the Baptist network consists of 17 hospitals; more than 2,900 affiliated physicians; home, hospice and psychiatric care; minor medical clinics; a chain of surgery, rehabilitation and other outpatient centers; and an education system highlighted by the Baptist College of Health Sciences.
The Baptist College of Health Sciences, accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, offers a bachelor of science degree in nursing and a bachelor of health science degree with majors in respiratory care, diagnostic medical sonography, health care management, nuclear medicine technology, medical radiography and radiation therapy technology.
