Hospitals Improve Patient Safety as We Advance Health in America

America’s hospitals and health systems have always aimed to provide the highest quality and safe care to patients, while helping every individual achieve their maximum potential for health.

An AHA report released this week on key patient safety measures shows hospitals continue to make progress on these important objectives as they care for patients and communities.

The report, which used data analyzed by Vizient, found that hospital and health system performance on key patient safety and quality measures was better in the first quarter of 2024 than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic. It also found that hospitals made these improvements while caring for patients with more significant health care needs.

Hospitals’ efforts to improve safety led to 200,000 Americans hospitalized between April 2023 and March 2024 surviving episodes of care they wouldn’t have in 2019, the report projects.

Some other key findings of the report include:

• Hospitals’ central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) and catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI)  in the first quarter of 2024 were at rates lower than those recorded in 2019. The analysis suggests improvements in infection prevention measures as hospitals continue to optimize their practices and respond to evolving patient needs.
• Multiple key preventive health screenings have rapidly rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, and ongoing improvement has led to a 60% to 80% increase in breast, colon and cervical cancer screenings compared to 2019. Increasing efforts to promote and facilitate screenings has further boosted participation rates, emphasizing the importance of early detection and its role in improving cancer care and outcomes.

These improvements underscore the resilience and unwavering commitment of hospitals and health systems — and the millions of hospital team members across the country — to delivering better care and outcomes to the patients and communities they serve.

While hospitals are proud of these efforts, we know there is more work to do. AHA’s Patient Safety Initiative, which was launched in 2023, will continue to reinforce and accelerate patient safety efforts.

More than 1,700 organizations from across the country are participating in the initiative, which focuses on fostering a culture of safety from the boardroom to the bedside, identifying and addressing inequities in safety, and enhancing workforce safety. The initiative provides hospitals with tools and data to advance patient safety, offers a platform for sharing their stories of improvement with peers, and highlights examples of applicable innovation that support, spread and sustain safety improvement.

We see examples every day of hospitals and health systems implementing and leading efforts to enhance the quality of care for patients. Every hospital is tailoring these efforts and strategies so that they can best care for and meet the needs of the patients and communities they serve. You can find some of these inspiring stories on AHA’s Quest for Quality webpage and Telling the Hospital Story webpage.

Hospitals and health systems never stop working to advance patient safety and quality. It has been — and will always be — our field’s top priority.