Improvement Stories
This website is our first public progress report. We hope it shows our commitment to achieving the highest standards of patient care, and how we measure our performance by both national standards and our own internal goals. But behind the numbers, there are stories at every Partners HealthCare hospital that shows the dedication of our physicians, nurses, and staff to the care of every patient. Here are some of those stories.
Information Technology Adoption to Make Care Safer
Fingerprints Prove That Hawthorn Is on the Cutting Edge
Hawthorn Medical Associates in Dartmouth, MA serves more than 130,000 patients each year. The practice switched from paper records to electronic medical records (EMRs). Read More »
Leading the Nation in Safer Prescribing
Partners HealthCare community hospitals were ranked in the nation’s top 10% of hospitals in prescribing medications by computer. Read More »
Patient Safety Measures
Safe Medication Administration
Barcoding has been in use in other industries (such as package delivery) for many years. But it has not been widely used in health care. Read More »
Matching Medications With Patients
Research shows that electronic medication administration record systems (eMARs) can improve drug safety. Brigham and Women’s Hospital was one of the country’s first hospitals ... Read More »
Reducing Patient Falls
The Partners Chief Nurses Council has been working on reducing the rate of patient falls since 2002. Read More »
Care Coordination for Special Populations
Keeping Heart Disease Patients Healthy and Out of the Hospital
Heart failure is the main reason that people over the age of 65 are admitted to hospitals. And, more than half of the readmissions for heart failure are preventable. Read More »
Taking Special Care: Helping More than 4,000 Medicaid Patients Manage Their Health
Partners HealthCare hospitals care for more than 100,000 Medicaid and uninsured patients each year. Read on to learn how registered nurses are helping more than 4,000 Medicaid patients manage their health. Read More »
Efficiency
Cost-Saving Prescribing: The Right Drug for the Right Patient at the Best Price
Physicians, pharmacists, and staff at Partners HealthCare have created guidelines to help doctors and nurse practitioners make the most cost-effective drug choices for their patients. Read More »
Focusing on What’s Best in Care, Not Just What’s Routine: New Guidelines for Using Technology Wisely
The development of a new guideline for the care of patients with Hodgkin’s lymphoma prevents unnecessary high-tech scans that may lead to false positives. Read More »
Surgical Events
Eliminating Surgical Serious Reportable Events
For years hospitals across the country have been working to eliminate surgical serious reportable events. Wrong body part, wrong procedure and wrong patient surgeries are taken very seriously both nationally and at Partners hospitals. Read More »
Environmental Events
Reducing Patient Falls
The Partners Chief Nurses Council has been working on reducing the rate of patient falls since 2002. Read More »