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Grant
Description
Pursuing Perfection: Raising the Bar for Health Care Performance
is a $20.9 million initiative to improve the quality of healthcare in America. The grant program is funded by the
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
and managed by the
Institute for Healthcare Improvement.
Pursuing Perfection challenges its grantees to set new, higher standards for the delivery of healthcare services and to share their methods for achieving this goal with providers across the country.
More than 220 hospitals and physician organizations nationwide applied for Pursuing Perfection grants. Hackensack University Medical Center (HUMC), which is one of only seven healthcare organizations selected to take part in this groundbreaking initiative — and the only hospital in the tri-state area, will receive $1.9 million to develop improved care models for disease prevention and treatment.
The impetus for Pursuing Perfection was set in motion after the
Institute of Medicine,
a nonprofit institution that provides health policy advice under a congressional charter, published two reports about the need to develop a strategy for improving the quality of healthcare in America.
Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century
asserts that America's health system is a tangled, highly fragmented web that often wastes resources by duplicating efforts, leaves unaccountable gaps in coverage, and fails to build on the strengths of all healthcare professionals. The report calls for immediate action to improve care over the next decade, and offers a comprehensive strategy to do so.
To Err is Human
contends that rigorous changes are needed throughout the healthcare system to reduce medical errors, which is one the nation's leading causes of death and injury. It estimates that as many as 98,000 people die each year from medical errors, and it sets forth a national agenda for reducing medical errors, improving patient safety, and designing a safer health system.
Using these Institute of Medicine reports as a framework for transformation, the sponsors identified six aims for improving healthcare. (See Goals of the Grant Program. )
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Sponsors of the Grant Program
The
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation,
based in Princeton, N.J., is the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and healthcare. It concentrates its grantmaking in four goal areas: to assure that all Americans have access to basic healthcare at reasonable cost; to improve care and support for people with chronic health conditions; to promote healthy communities and lifestyles; and to reduce the personal, social and economic harm caused by substance abuse - tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs.
The
Institute for Healthcare Improvement
is an integrative force for improving healthcare worldwide. By building bridges for people and organizations committed to real change, and by harvesting innovative ideas, IHI leverages the collective energy of healthcare organizations to accomplish more together than they can separately. Founded in 1991, the Institute is an independent, non-profit organization based in Boston.
Timeline of the Grant Program
Phase I (September 2001 to March 2002) — Under the first phase of the program, a select group of applicants received a seven-month, $50,000 planning grant to develop a detailed business plan on how they would implement their proposed improvements. Participants began setting goals, launching pilot projects, and mobilizing staff.
Phase II (April 2002 - March 2004) — As Phase II was launched, seven of the 12 finalists selected received grants of $1.9 million each to support their work to improve the quality of healthcare. Grantees will implement broad and comprehensive quality improvement plans throughout their organizations. This work will include extensive testing of change concepts, infrastructure improvements, redesign of core care processes, and other activities leading to organizational transformation.
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Criteria for the Selection of the Medical Center
The application process for Pursuing Perfection grants was an arduous process, but Hackensack University Medical Center proved it was up to the task by developing:
a plan for piloting efforts that pursue perfect healthcare in at least two care processes as defined by national standard quality measures.
(To read about the medical center’s two successful pilot programs, click
Successful Pilot Programs.
)
a strategy within the organization that relies on training the organization's clinical and administrative employees to redesign their processes based on the lessons from the pilots.
a strategy for building partnerships beyond the boundaries of the organization as necessary to pursue perfect care for patients.
a strategy to build the infrastructure to support substantial, organization-wide improvements in such areas as clinical measurement, business processes, accounting, information systems, staff training, and human resources.
a strategy to make the business case for efforts that pursue perfect healthcare.
a leadership strategy that directly involves the CEO, medical leadership, and trustees/board members as persistent champions of the change, shouldering the burden of assuring that the organization continually and dramatically improves its care.
Other factors that were crucial to the selection of Hackensack University Medical Center as a grantee included:
Hackensack University Medical Center is a teaching and research hospital affiliated with the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey — New Jersey Medical School and a member of the New Jersey Council of Teaching Hospitals. It is the largest provider of inpatient and outpatient services in the state of New Jersey.
Hackensack University Medical Center is one of the first two hospitals in the nation to receive The Quality New Jersey's 2001 Governor's Gold Award for Performance Excellence. This award is based on the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award established by the U.S. Congress in 1987 to improve organizational performance and to enhance the nation's ability in the global marketplace. This is the highest award level and indicative that the medical center has sound systematic approaches and fact-based improvement processes in place. The scorecard for this award tracks organizational performance results that include patient satisfaction, delivery of patient care, medication process, laboratory and diagnostics services, infection control, nutrition and food management, home health services, financial and market, staff and work system, supplier and partner, and organizational effectiveness.
The medical center has been honored since 1995 as the first hospital on the East Coast to receive the Magnet Award for nursing excellence from The American Nurses Credentialing Center, and the second hospital in the nation to receive a four-year re-designation of this award.
The medical center is also the recipient of the Consumer Choice Award for nine consecutive years. Based on a national survey by the National Research Corporation of 140,000 households to determine the leading hospitals in the country, the medical center was named as the hospital of choice in Bergen and Passaic counties for quality of staff, community programs, personalized care, and overall reputation.
Benefits to HUMC Patients
Being selected as a grantee under Pursuing Perfection — an elite group of seven out of more than 220 applicants — places Hackensack University Medical Center among the top hospitals in the nation and reinforces the institution’s outstanding commitment to provide world-class healthcare. The grant furthers HUMC’s strong commitment to patient-centered care and focus. Continued involvement in this groundbreaking effort translates into better results for the patients of the medical center and directly impacts the future of healthcare everywhere.
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More than 220 hospitals and physician organizations nationwide applied for Pursuing Perfection grants. Hackensack University Medical Center (HUMC), which is one of only seven healthcare organizations selected to take part in this groundbreaking initiative — and the only hospital in the tri-state area, will receive $1.9 million to develop improved care models for disease prevention and treatment.
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(Click a star to select a topic.)
Stimulus for Pursuing Perfection
Sponsors of the Grant Program
Timeline of the Grant Program
Criteria for the Selection of HUMC
Benefits to HUMC Patients
Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century
To Err is Human
Using these Institute of Medicine reports as a framework for transformation, the sponsors identified six aims for improving healthcare. (See Goals of the Grant Program. )
Back to Top
Sponsors of the Grant Program
Timeline of the Grant Program
Phase II (April 2002 - March 2004) — As Phase II was launched, seven of the 12 finalists selected received grants of $1.9 million each to support their work to improve the quality of healthcare. Grantees will implement broad and comprehensive quality improvement plans throughout their organizations. This work will include extensive testing of change concepts, infrastructure improvements, redesign of core care processes, and other activities leading to organizational transformation.
Back to Top
Criteria for the Selection of the Medical Center
a plan for piloting efforts that pursue perfect healthcare in at least two care processes as defined by national standard quality measures.
(To read about the medical center’s two successful pilot programs, click
Successful Pilot Programs.
)
a strategy within the organization that relies on training the organization's clinical and administrative employees to redesign their processes based on the lessons from the pilots.
a strategy for building partnerships beyond the boundaries of the organization as necessary to pursue perfect care for patients.
a strategy to build the infrastructure to support substantial, organization-wide improvements in such areas as clinical measurement, business processes, accounting, information systems, staff training, and human resources.
a strategy to make the business case for efforts that pursue perfect healthcare.
a leadership strategy that directly involves the CEO, medical leadership, and trustees/board members as persistent champions of the change, shouldering the burden of assuring that the organization continually and dramatically improves its care.
Other factors that were crucial to the selection of Hackensack University Medical Center as a grantee included:
Hackensack University Medical Center is a teaching and research hospital affiliated with the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey — New Jersey Medical School and a member of the New Jersey Council of Teaching Hospitals. It is the largest provider of inpatient and outpatient services in the state of New Jersey.
Hackensack University Medical Center is one of the first two hospitals in the nation to receive The Quality New Jersey's 2001 Governor's Gold Award for Performance Excellence. This award is based on the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award established by the U.S. Congress in 1987 to improve organizational performance and to enhance the nation's ability in the global marketplace. This is the highest award level and indicative that the medical center has sound systematic approaches and fact-based improvement processes in place. The scorecard for this award tracks organizational performance results that include patient satisfaction, delivery of patient care, medication process, laboratory and diagnostics services, infection control, nutrition and food management, home health services, financial and market, staff and work system, supplier and partner, and organizational effectiveness.
The medical center has been honored since 1995 as the first hospital on the East Coast to receive the Magnet Award for nursing excellence from The American Nurses Credentialing Center, and the second hospital in the nation to receive a four-year re-designation of this award.
The medical center is also the recipient of the Consumer Choice Award for nine consecutive years. Based on a national survey by the National Research Corporation of 140,000 households to determine the leading hospitals in the country, the medical center was named as the hospital of choice in Bergen and Passaic counties for quality of staff, community programs, personalized care, and overall reputation.
Benefits to HUMC Patients
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