“Friday’s announcement, that more than 2,000 hospitals and nearly 4,500 organizations around the country have already pledged support for the Partnership for Patients, is good news for the millions of patients and families that are counting on this public/private partnership to improve the safety and quality of care and reduce avoidable hospital readmissions.

At a time when critical health safety net programs are on the chopping block, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services launched this initiative to make hospital care safer and less costly by reducing hospital-acquired infections and unnecessary readmissions. The Partnership for Patients reached this impressive milestone just three months after launch because it is a common-sense solution that brings together providers, payers and consumers to make care safer, which can save precious health care dollars that now go to treat patients who suffer from medical errors and get sicker instead of better at American hospitals.

The Campaign for Better Care is working to protect vulnerable older patients with multiple health problems and ensure that they can access well-coordinated, quality health care. We have built a consumer coalition with more than 150 organizations that is working vigorously to encourage hospitals and others to sign the Partnership for Patients’ pledge, because we recognize that it is a much better way to control costs than the slash-and-burn policies that some lawmakers are proposing. Our most vulnerable patients and their families will be better off if we can bring even more partners on-board to make the Partnership for Patients the success that patients and their families need it to be.”