Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative

The Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative, or PRHI, is an independent catalyst for improving healthcare safety and quality in Southwestern Pennsylvania. It operates on the premise that dramatic quality improvement is the best cost-containment strategy for health care. PRHI was the first regional consortium of medical, business and civic leaders to address healthcare safety and quality improvement as a social and business imperative. Turning its own community into a demonstration lab, PRHI strives to accelerate improvement and set the pace for the nation. Its experiment reflects three principles: PRHI offers clinicians and other healthcare professionals necessary tools, expertise, education, models and networks to perfect patient care and safety in their organizations. Using the Toyota Production System and Alcoa Business System as models, PRHI developed a quality improvement method for clinical settings known as Perfecting Patient Care. PRHI teaches this method through a five-day curriculum called Perfecting Patient Care University, as well as in advanced and individualized courses and on-site coaching. PRHI reports that thousands across the nation have already learned how to use Perfecting Patient Care principles and are demonstrating the value of quality engineering in any healthcare setting—from neighborhood clinics, to hospitals and nursing homes. PRHI was recently named an official "community leader" by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt for organizing private sector support for the federal government's current healthcare reform plan. The communitywide coalition is one of just eight regional organizations nationwide to receive the designation, which acknowledges the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative for its nearly decade-long efforts aimed at improving the quality of health care through the elimination of medical errors. PRHI, cofounded by Paul O’Neill and Karen Wolk Feinstein, is a nonprofit operating arm of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation. It is funded by local corporations, foundations, health plans and government contracts and grants.
 * 1) Health care is local. Federal policy changes alone cannot achieve needed reform.
 * 2) Those who work at the point of care develop quality and safety improvements that work and last.
 * 3) Continuous improvement in quality and safety requires the highest possible standard, namely perfection. To settle for less limits achievement.