Over the past 14 years, the Florida Hospital Association has launched various quality improvement collaboratives and initiatives to support a goal set by the FHA Board of Trustees to “move the needle” on how Florida ranks in quality performance compared to other states.
 
During this time, FHA launched:

• The first statewide Readmissions Collaborative in the country
• The largest statewide Surgical Care Improvement initiative in the country
• Collaboratives around reducing blood stream infections, catheter associated urinary tract infections and improving ICU safety
• The Partnership for Patients Hospital Engagement and Hospital Improvement Innovation Network, in collaboration with the American Hospital Association and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
• All in for Florida: ED Intervention Project, in partnership with the Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse Association

 
The results have been tremendous, with FHA working with over 200 hospitals in at least one quality improvement initiative and, for those that we could qualify results, preventing almost 50,000 cases of patient harm and avoiding $450 million in health care costs. 
 
While these results were tremendous, the work continues.  To drive our quality strategy for 2021, we are focusing on four critical areas based on feedback and direction from the FHA Quality and Patient Safety Committee (if they are on the webpage, can we link to a list of the committee members).  For 2021, our four priority areas are:
 

1. Reducing Healthcare Associated Infections and Improvement Patient Safety
2. Improving Care Transitions to Reduce Readmissions
3. Addressing Maternal and Child Health Issues through Support and Involvement with the Florida Perinatal Quality Collaborative on their key initiatives
4. Tackling Opioid/Substance Abuse and Behavioral Health Issues

 
​Improving quality and clinical outcomes is a core mission of the FHA.  

Resources

• FHA Issues in Focus | Behavioral Health​