Patient Safety and Clinical Excellence

Ascension Health wants to establish safety as a priority throughout our system with no preventable deaths or injuries.

Two initiatives that have been established to help reduce error and improve the safety of our patients are the:

• Heart Failure Collaborative



• Medication Error Reduction

Heart Failure Collaborative

Heart failure is the fourth most common reason for admission to an Ascension Health hospital, and over the last few years there has been growing concern about the quality of care and costs associated with caring for these patients.

To implement a new model of care for heart failure patients, teams from 29 Ascension Health hospitals are working together in a Breakthrough Series Collaborative. Based on a model developed by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, this breakthrough collaborative method relies on rapid spread and implementation of existing knowledge to accomplish common goals.

Each hospital will create a path to "breakthrough" improvements in their own hospital's care of heart failure patients. We expect to see decreases in complications, morbidity, mortality, readmissions, length of stay and patient-care costs.

Medication Error Reduction

The Medication Safety Advisory Council (MSAC) is implementing strategic decisions made by Ascension Health clinical leadership by helping to establish an unprecedented standardized system for medication error reduction. MSAC consists of Ascension Health physicians, nurses, pharmacists, experts from information services and risk management and internal and external subject matter expert advisors.

Characteristics of a system designed for medication safety include:

• A non-punitive system for reporting medication errors



• A system in which errors are continuously monitored and recorded and selected error rates are continuously displayed for personnel feedback



• A system in which multidisciplinary teams periodically review error data and redesign systems



• A system that broadcasts results and good practices across the enterprise



• A system that supports Ascension Health's five-year goals of reducing medication errors and eliminating preventable death and injury

MSAC will implement this process by defining the errors, redesigning the Incident Reporting System and adopting a taxonomy for the Incident Reporting System. MSAC is helping to roll out the reporting processes through voluntary reporting and audits.

Return to Healthcare that is Safe

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