OAKLAND, CA – Kaiser Permanente has launched "Patient Safety Initiative at America's Public Hospitals,” a program designed to enhance patient safety programs at public hospitals to ensure safe, high-quality care for vulnerable and low-income populations.

Kaiser Permanente contributed $718,010 to fund 85 hospitals for the two-year program. Forty-two hospitals were selected for Phase I in 2009, with the remaining 43 to be selected for Phase 2 in 2010. There is potential to expand the program to all 140 member hospitals of the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems.

Kaiser Permanente, the National Patient Safety Foundation and the NAPH created the initiative.

"The Patient Safety Initiative represents a shared commitment ... that the hospitals that provide care to most vulnerable in our communities exemplify standards, practices and organizational culture that minimize patient risk and enhance safety," said Winston Wong, MD, medical director for community benefit at Kaiser Permanente. "Regulators and, more importantly, our patients expect an uncompromising program to produce system-wide patient safety. This initiative is part of that promise."

The goals of the initiative are to:

• Position public hospitals on the leading edge of patient safety and quality care;
• Establish a consistent and shared pool of patient safety knowledge, tool sets and techniques;
• Develop a community of public hospital clinicians, patient safety and quality leaders and hospital executives committed to the initiative;
• Garner measurable results in patient safety practices; and
• Create patient and community programs fostering communication that engages, informs and builds continued confidence in care and the public hospital system.

Participating hospitals come from across the country and include single hospitals and larger systems, as well as those with nascent patient safety and quality efforts and those with more advanced programs.

"This fund has been instrumental in strengthening NAPH's quality agenda and bringing quality and patient safety resources to our members," said Christine Capito Burch, executive director of the NAPH.