Hospital Referral Guidelines

The Michigan Health and Safety Coalition announced the release of the Hospital Referral Guidelines that were developed to help ensure that patients in Michigan receive safe and high quality health care.

The Coalition organized six expert clinical panels made up of Michigan clinicians - primarily physicians - to study eight areas of care. The panel members, who were chosen based on their clinical expertise and willingness to objectively assess the proposed hospital referral guidelines, were asked to review current scientific research and expert opinion. The year-long effort culminated in the development of the Hospital Referral Guidelines. The Coalition is encouraging the use of the guidelines to help improve the safety and quality of heath care in Michigan.

Before reading the guidelines, we recommend you first read the following reference materials:

• Preamble to the Hospital Referral Guidelines
• Hospital Referral Guidelines List of Codes

The eight areas of care studied include:

• Abdominal aortic aneurysm repair
• Carotid endarterectomy surgery (removal of plaque from the carotid artery)
• Esophagectomy for cancer (removal of part of the esophagus due to cancer)
• Care of infants with congenital anomalies in neonatal intensive care units
• Intensive care unit physician staffing
• Care for low birthweight infants in neonatal intensive care units
• Open-heart surgery
• Percutaneous coronary interventions - (heart procedures or treatments that are performed through the skin such as angioplasty)

The Michigan Health and Safety Coalition assessed the guidelines developed by the Leapfrog Group and enhanced their recommendations. For example, the guidelines include recommendations for staffing, patient volume, data collection and continuous improvement initiatives. The Coalition will be actively involved in working with providers to implement the Michigan Hospital Referral Guidelines. These guidelines were developed with the intent to encourage continuous improvement in the delivery of care.

After issuing the guidelines, the next step for the Coalition is to conduct a baseline survey of Michigan hospitals to identify their practices as compared to the Michigan guidelines. When the survey is completed and reports are available - in early 2002 - the Coalition will establish workgroups to facilitate implementation of the guidelines.

Note: links to Michigan Health and Safety Coalition member pages can be found on the Participating Organizations page.