Lessons Learned

In November, HQI- and CHPSO-member hospitals enjoyed an excellent webinar on managing in-house cardiac arrest, and The Joint Commission’s focus on hospital care and monitoring processes.  

“Despite the fact that the vast majority of health care takes place in the outpatient, or ambulatory care, setting, efforts to improve safety have mostly focused on the inpatient setting.”¹ 

This was the topic of discussion in August when CHPSO and HQI were privileged to share the arena with Anjana Sharma, MD, an assistant professor at the University of California, San Francisco during a webinar on ambulatory patient safety. Dr. Sharma is a primary care physician and researcher in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, where she works passionately to understand the impact of patient engagement in health care and to identify strategies to improve quality and safety within the ambulatory/community setting.   

It has been an unprecedented and taxing two years for front-line workers and patients alike.  Nearly one of three patients delayed in-person health care visits in 2020 due to access issues and/or fear of exposure to COVID-19. According to a national poll, 57% of Americans experienced negative health repercussions, including and up to premature death. In […]

Racial health disparities have been a major focus in health care in recent years. Growing research illustrates the negative impact implicit bias has on racial and ethnic minorities in the United States.   The data reveal these groups experience higher rates of illness and death in a wide range of health conditions (diabetes, hypertension, obesity, asthma, and heart disease) when compared to whites. This can be a difficult issue to unpack, especially in health care, an industry that is designed ultimately […]

It has often been referred to as the “silence of shame.” Mental health conditions, substance use, and workplace events have been documented as contributing antecedents to nurse suicides. When a nurse is at risk for losing or loses his/her license, the psychological impact can be devastating. The experience of isolation, feelings of failure, public humiliation, […]

As we wrap up a pandemic year and work through2021 with COVID-19 still at large, the arrival of the vaccine leaves most of us cautiously optimistic at best. While there is light on the horizon, many are still, and will continue to be impacted by delays in care during this epic time. HQI kicked off its first Safe Table of the year with this topic.  In January, we were privileged to host […]

One of the most popular educational offerings available to CHPSO members are the regularly scheduled Safe Table forums. Offered about two dozen times per year, these meetings are focused on safety and quality improvement topics, each with a specific clinical focus. As a members-only patient safety activity, these confidential forums occur within each participant’s patient safety evaluation system and provide a safe space in which to explore systematic concerns or issues and share lessons […]

Health care providers must provide precision care, perform highly complex procedures and treatments, and cope with increasingly stressful care environments. To support their work, a variety of innovations have been devised to increase patient safety by decreasing preventable harm related to human factors, technological advances, and complex care environments. Certain types of infusion pumps, often called […]