MHA Keystone Center for Patient Safety & Quality Launches New Collaborative
Due to the results of record-high unemployment, more Michigan citizens are now uninsured or underinsured and seeking care in Michigan hospital emergency rooms (ERs). In 2008, the Michigan Health & Hospital Association (MHA) Keystone Center for Patient Safety & Quality started the necessary training to launch a new pilot collaborative called MHA Keystone: ER.

The goal is to prevent harm to patients by reducing ER boarding/overcrowding and wait times using evidence-based best practice. This will ensure that the most critically ill patients receive treatment first and reduce the likelihood that a patient will leave a hospital without treatment. The MHA Keystone Center visited hospital emergency departments across Michigan to gain a better understanding of operations and issues and identified MHA member hospitals to help guide the MHA Keystone: ER collaborative.

Three Michigan hospitals – a large teaching center, a mid-sized community hospital and a critical access hospital – are participating in the one-year pilot of MHA Keystone: ER, with plans to offer the program as a statewide collaborative upon completion. The pilot program was launched in November 2008 and is underway at University of Michigan Hospitals & Health Centers, Ann Arbor; MidMichigan Medical Center-Midland; and MidMichigan Medical Center-Gladwin.

Through our funding, BCBSM is proud to help the MHA Keystone Center ensure safe, high-quality patient care and affordable coverage for all Michigan residents.

For more information about the MHA Keystone Center, contact Sam Watson, senior vice president, patient safety and quality at (517) 323-3443 or swatson@mha.org at the MHA.