CMS announces new Hospital Improvement and Innovation Network program

A recent Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality report has shown a tremendous amount of progress in patient safety. Between 2010 and 2014, preventable patient harm has been reduced by 39%, or 2.1 million fewer patients harm. This accounts for the saving of 87,000 lives and $20 billion, says CMS Acting Administrator Patrick Conway, MD, MSc, and is an unprecedented step forward in patient safety.

“I have been working in the field of quality improvement for 20 years, and I have never before seen results such as these,” he wrote in a CMS blog post. “This work, though, is far from done, and it is imperative that we sustain and strengthen efforts to address patient safety problems, such as central line infections and hospital readmissions.”

To continue that progress, CMS announced last Wednesday that it was releasing a Request for Proposals (RFP) for Hospital Improvement and Innovation Networks (HIIN), with the goal of engaging and supporting the nation’s hospitals, patients, and their caregivers in work to implement and spread well-tested, evidence-based best practices. The HIINs will be overseen by CMS’ Quality Improvement (QIO) Program.

Between now and 2019, the new HIINs will have the enormous task of decreasing overall patient harm by 20% nationally, as well as reducing 30-day readmission rates by 12% from the 2014 baseline. Any organization that meets CMS’ RFP requirements is permitted and encouraged to join, including those that were in the first or second round of a Partnership for Patients or QIO Hospital Engagement Networks.

“The procurement for the HIINs will be a full and open competition and CMS encourages all interested parties to submit a proposal that will continue to build on the successes achieved so far,” Conway says.
More information about today’s RFP may be found at FedBizOpps.gov.