By Don Nielsen, M.D.
Our nation's hospitals deliver the best health care in the world. But there remains room for improvement. Reducing and preventing medical errors and improving the overall safety of the health care system are the AHA's fundamental quality issues, and key to making health care a real system of coordination and patient involvement.
The leadership you provide in addressing these issues doesn't need to occur in a vacuum. The AHA is working with our state association partners and many other organizations, including the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, the National Patient Safety Foundation, the Institute for Safe Medication Practices, and the National Coalition on Health Care (NCHC) on a series of programs and initiatives to help guide your organizations to a better safety environment.
Among the tools we've provided: a quality advisory listing successful practices; a "white paper" on computerized physician order entry systems; videotapes and workbooks on medical errors; medication safety self-assessment tools; our "Prescriptions for Safety" column in this newspaper; safety updates on our AHA Web site; educational forums; patient safety leadership summits; and more that are planned or soon will be under way.
The most recent example of this effort is on its way to you. The AHA is sending you two new quality-improvement reports from NCHC, a 90-member alliance of businesses, labor unions, providers, consumer groups and foundations united in the belief that America needs better, more affordable care. One report, "Curing the System: Stories of Change in Chronic Care," identifies innovations and best practices for patients with chronic diseases. The other report, "Care in the ICU: Teaming up to Improve Quality," examines ways in which hospitals across the country are improving the care they provide in their intensive care units.
We encourage you to share these reports with your board members, medical staff, quality experts, nurses and other caregivers. The AHA is committed to getting you the tools and resources like the NCHC reports that can spur exciting new ideas and approaches because, as good as our systems are for preventing and reducing medical errors of all kinds, we can and must do better. We need to learn more about the latest systems, techniques, and technologies for enhancing quality and safety in hospital care ... which safety practices work well and how they can be improved, and how we can use technology to improve patient safety, and involve patients and the public in helping to identify potential errors.
These are important issues to address as our hospitals and health systems strive to provide the right care, at the right time in the right place. And, make no mistake, we had better be up to the task of continuously improving care. Because if we fail to get this job done, the government almost certainly will step in to do it for us; and we will have diminished our opportunity to shape this critical element of our work.
Improving quality and enhancing patient safety must be a top priority in every health care organization. Each should have a well-defined quality management program that addresses all services that are provided. And quality management programs should measure how effective each organization is at delivering care. This includes measuring and tracking quality performance, identifying ongoing steps for improvement, and then putting them into effect. And critical to any quality management program is the need for administrative and clinic leaders to be involved, and a governing board that provides leadership and oversight.
Putting those systems and programs in place will take leadership, innovation and commitment, and require you to foster greater trust, understanding and openness among caregivers, support staff and patients. As you keep your focus on doing what is best for patients, the AHA will continue to keep our focus on getting you the resources and support you need to carry out the organizational and cultural changes that can make better care a reality for the people and communities you serve.
Nielsen is the AHA's senior vice president for quality leadership.
