The Maine Critical Access Hospital Patient Safety Collaborative has been formed with the support of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention Office of Rural Health and Primary Care , Maine Quality Forum, Maine Health Access Foundation and the Muskie School of Public Service’s Maine Rural Health Research Center.  Fourteen of the fifteen Maine CAHs have signed a memorandum of understanding with the Maine Quality Forum to participate. 

The purpose of the Collaborative is to work on common issues related to patient safety and quality improvement.  The Collaborative will serve as a forum for the development and implementation of specific quality improvement initiatives, review of best practices, future grant opportunities, shared resources and benchmarking, and policy development particular to small rural hospitals in Maine. 

The Maine Health Access Foundation (MeHAF) sponsored the first initiative to be addressed by the Collaborative.  Participating hospitals engaged in a six-month planning process to create medication safety initiatives.  Staff from the Muskie School  facilitated the process and provided technical assistance to the CAHs as they completed self-assessment activities and participated in best practice presentations.  All the hospitals successfully submitted grant proposals to MeHAF to fund a year-long medication safety initiative at their respective institutions.  The project plans vary as to the current extent of implementation and projected value and feasibility.  The topics include medication reconciliation, interventions related to high-alert medications, enhanced patient education around medications, and telepharmacy to expand pharmacist consultation.