WSHA is launching a comprehensive statewide claims database, PNWPop, which will go live in early 2019. In addition to reducing lag times for inpatient data, PNWPop will be the first comprehensive database of outpatient data in Washington. The data set will enable WSHA and member hospitals information for more robust quality improvement efforts, including a... Read More >>
The Washington State Hospital Association and the Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems created the Northwest Safety and Quality Partnership, which brings care quality and safety initiatives together from both associations to serve all 169 hospitals and health systems in the two states. The partnership’s work will target 21 initiatives, such as reducing hospital... Read More >>
More than 300,000 patients in the United States require mechanical ventilation as a life-saving therapy each year. Complications, such as ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), are not uncommon. They can lead to increased length of stay, higher health care costs and an increased likelihood of readmission. VAP is one such complication, affecting as many as 20 percent of... Read More >>
WSHA has completed the pilot phase of its Patient Safety Alert (PSA) huddles and is opening them up to all hospitals in the state.This extraordinary program is focused on sharing harm events and near misses across participating hospitals and clinics. The goal to improve safety and share best practices. WSHA originally launched PSA huddles with... Read More >>
WSHA is recruiting highly motivated teams willing to engage in an evidence-based, nationally successful readmissions program. We are honored to partner with Dr. Amy Boutwell, a nationally recognized thought leader in the field of reducing readmissions and improving care for multi-visit patients (MVPs). The MVP Method is a clinically-credible, operationally-feasible, locally-adaptable, and effective method for... Read More >>
To ensure data integrity and help WSHA better support hospitals in their quality improvement efforts, WSHA is in the process of developing a robust data submission follow-up process. WSHA staff have begun to reach out to hospitals missing more than three months of data on any measures reported in the Quality Benchmarking System (QBS) to... Read More >>
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released new ventilator-associated event (VAE) definitions in 2013 and, while more than 2000 hospitals in the United States report their VAE rates to the CDC, they still struggle to reduce incidence. The new definition is broader than the previous one and includes complications that are associated with... Read More >>
About five years ago, the quality department at Kittitas Valley Healthcare (KVH), took a hard look at the value they were providing to the organization. One of the things they immediately noticed was an extremely low usage of their incident reporting system due in part to a clunky electronic tool, lack of follow-up on reported... Read More >>
Antibiotic resistance, which occurs when bacteria do not respond to the mechanisms of the drugs designed to kill them, is one of the most serious public health concerns in the United States today, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). To improve provider education on antibiotic resistance, the CDC just released Section... Read More >>
Humorist and cowboy Will Rogers observed “Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” Honoring Choices PNW is excited about the recent momentum and program enhancements propelling us down the right track to change the culture around advance care planning. Over the past few months, we’ve... Read More >>
