Patient safety and quality are a major part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, but meeting these standards is sometimes easier said than done.
At the 5th Annual Becker's Hospital Review Annual Meeting on Thursday, May 15, a panel of hospital executives gathered to discuss quality and patient safety under the ACA. Leon J. Owens, MD, FACS, President and CEO of Surgical Affiliates Management Group; Paul R. Summerside, MD, MMM, CMO of BayCare Clinic; and Laura Kaiser, Executive Vice President and COO of Intermountain Healthcare sat on the panel moderated by Scott Christiansen, Founder and CEO of Root3 Marketing. The panelists discussed several topics from creating a culture of patient safety to running an efficient emergency department.
"When you accept the fact that you need an emergency department staffed with highly-trained people and you've got the right infrastructure, you can build a highly-tuned machine," said Dr. Summerside. "It can be effective. Look at the ED's efficiency and value proposition to figure out how to take care of patients better, cheaper and faster. The challenge is to provide 24/7 high-level care with the best patient safety and quality."
The most important aspects of patient safety and quality discussed during the panel included:
- Strong leadership
- Protocol and treatment standardization
- Staff of team players
- Culture of accountability
- Data analytics with proper interpretation
- An understanding of patient desires
"Our goal is to help people live their healthiest lives possible," said Ms. Kaiser. "We need great and reliable data that transfers into information we can use."
Dr. Summerside also touched on patient-centric care and motivating employees to provide the best care possible. "I can't tell the staff what their best work looks like today because if you are doing your best work every encounter is unique," he said. "We try to figure out what the patient wants so we can provide value and achieve the best outcome. The best staff members have an attitude that is a mixture of humility and curiosity."
The panelists also discussed quality in the trauma care model. Mr. Owens applied those principles to general surgery as well. These efforts require everyone to work as a team--executives, physicians and staff members.
"We hired a lot of physicians, and we want physicians who are focused on being team players. Not every system checks for that," Mr. Owens said. "We are also holding peoples' feet to the fire to keep them accountable. We're working hard at our protocols and select for people who think like good team players. We continue to strive to get better, and data is our friend. However, interpreting it properly is our challenge."
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