IRVING, TX--(Marketwire - June 23, 2008) - Sixteen hospitals across New Jersey and Pennsylvania have come together to focus on improving care for patients in intensive care units (ICUs). The hospitals have joined what's known as a Rapid Adoption Network (RAN), a virtual network that will allow them to share information about their clinical practices for the purpose of accelerating the pace of clinical improvement, cutting improvement time to less than one year. The RAN is sponsored by VHA Inc., the national health care alliance. A unifying focal point for the RAN will be the clinical blueprint VHA has developed to help its members improve performance in ICUs. Patients in the ICU are at higher risk for infections and other complications, which lengthen the hospital stay and threaten patients' lives.
