(NAHQ e-news: Gleview, Illinois) -- Hospital leaders looking for field-tested practices, proven strategies, tools, and education to support ongoing efforts to improve the patient experience and outcomes in their hospitals have a new resource from the American Hospital Association (AHA).

“Hospitals in Pursuit of Excellence” is AHA’s new permanent platform to help hospitals accelerate their journeys to excellence for the patient experience and in clinical and operational performance. The initiative focuses on building hospital capacity to internally improve and bring additional value to patients and communities.

The cornerstone of “Hospitals in Pursuit of Excellence” is the Institute of Medicine’s Six Aims for Improvement—safety, timeliness, efficiency, effectiveness, equity, and patient-centeredness. With an approach that emphasizes systems thinking and process management, this new effort seeks to help hospitals reduce waste and inefficiency, optimize the use of resources, and enhance their ability to deliver safe, high-quality, and affordable patient care. The AHA Quality Center has identified six Principles of Performance Excellence to help hospital leaders achieve these goals:

Perfect the patient experience. Care must be respectful of, and responsive to, individual preferences, needs, and values.

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