Health Care Quality and Cost Council
Health Care Quality and Cost Council Issues a Progress Report on Patient Safety Efforts in Massachusetts
On September 18, 2008, The Massachusetts Health Care Quality and Cost Council issued a progress report on several new efforts intended to improve patient care and save the state millions of dollars annually. Working with a broad coalition of state health care leaders, members of the Council highlighted several new initiatives designed to improve quality and control the cost of care.
The Council’s key patient safety goals include ending hospital-associated infections by 2012 and eliminating “serious reportable events,” preventable occurrences like surgery on the wrong patient or wrong site. Hospital-associated infections and serious reportable events are significant patient safety and cost concerns for the Commonwealth. These and other medical errors are the eighth leading cause of death nationally, exceeding automobile accidents, AIDS and breast cancer.
HCQCC Update: Patient Safety - September 18, 2008 (PDF) | RTF
Annual Report
The Massachusetts Health Care Quality and Cost Council released its first Annual Report, which identifies specific strategies designed to improve health care quality while containing costs.
The Council adopted six health care quality improvement goals that are intended to lower or contain the growth in health care costs while improving quality and reducing racial and ethnic health disparities. These goals address health care cost control, patient safety, chronic care management and prevention, end of life care, racial and ethnic disparities, and transparency. This report discusses each of these goals in detail, along with the Council’s recommended strategies for attaining them.
Download the Annual Report (PDF) | Word 3.3MB