Quality & Patient Safety

Hospitals engage in an array of collaborative activities designed to improve the quality and safety of the care they provide. The increasing amount of credible and actionable information that has become available through public reporting efforts has helped spur improvements.

While it is worth celebrating the improvements in patient safety and quality, such as reductions in hospital-acquired infections and early elective deliveries, it also is imperative that hospitals continue to strive for better performance. Public policies can further facilitate or impede hospitals’ efforts to improve quality, which is why the AHA and its member hospitals work closely with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the National Quality Forum, The Joint Commission and other national accreditation bodies.

As hospitals and health systems continue to look for ways to advance quality of care while lowering costs, the AHA has taken a leadership role in supplying information to hospitals to help them further improve the work they do. Read on to find out more.

Current Resources

Infection Control and Prevention

Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAI) prevention and reduction are longstanding quality and patient safety priorities. However, the level of attention and resources allocated to HAI prevention has fluctuated over the past decade Given the large amount of resources devoted to HAI reduct...

Reducing Health Care Disparities

Research has shown that individuals of color, of various ethnic backgrounds, religions, sexual orientation, or with limited English proficiency have less access to care, receive different care and often have worse health than those who are white. AHA and its members strive to help all ...

Emergency Readiness

Hospitals have increasingly stepped up their readiness efforts in order to be better prepared in responding to disasters and mass casualty events of any scope, including disasters both natural and man-made. As vital community resources, hospitals must be among the best prepared, alongs...

Quality Measurement & Star Ratings

The AHA has long supported transparency and continues to share the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' goal of making the data on Hospital Compare easier for consumers to understand. However, CMS’s flawed approach to star ratings undermines this goal by providing an inaccurate, m...

Standards, Surveys, Accreditation

The AHA supports recent changes to the Medicare Conditions of Participation, as well as important updates related to Joint Commission accreditation. We have also advocated for more clarity in the interpretation of standards, as well as a less burdensome CMS survey process that could imp...

Appropriate Use of Medical Resources

The AHA white paper, Appropriate Use of Medical Resources, examines the drivers of health care costs and contributing factors. We identify a “top five” list of hospital-based procedures or interventions for which the hospital and the medical staff should craft policies and establish pro...