Reorganizing and rebranding board committees helped Roanoke, Va.-based Carilion Clinic elevate patient safety to the same priority level as finance, according to CEO emeritus Nancy Howell Agee, MSN, BSN.
Ms. Agee spoke with Mindy Estes, MD, former CEO of Kansas City, Mo.-based Saint Luke’s Health System, about building and sustaining a culture of safety in healthcare during an episode of the AHA’s Advancing Health podcast.
Ms. Agee, who led a $2.4 billion nonprofit integrated health system, said one of her priorities was to avoid checking a box or meeting regulations — instead, she aimed to drive meaningful improvements in patient safety and quality. As part of that effort, Carilion Clinic restructured its board and committees.
“While we had a quality committee, it wasn’t perhaps as robust as the finance committee,” she said. “It seemed like the committee that got the most airtime at board meetings was the finance committee. [To educate] the board about what it meant to be an integral, high integrity, zero harm organization, we renamed the quality committee CAPS: Clinical Advancement and Patient Safety.
“Now, the two most important board committees are CAPS and finance.”
Another key initiative involved consolidating multiple teams under one quality umbrella. This included risk management, quality reporting, patient safety, patient advocacy, human factors engineering, the simulation lab, and teams that prepare for Joint Commission and state surveys.
Listen to the podcast episode here.
