Initiative leads to new patient safety center
Encouraged by the success of a patient safety initiative for rural hospitals (see cover story), Bill Jolley, MPA, vice president of the Tennessee Hospital Association (THA), has spearheaded the creation of the Tennessee Center for Patient Safety, which has "Allowed us to continue our work, not only with this project, but to expand into looking at infections and other areas of patient safety."
BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, which provided the funding for the collaborative, continues to make some financial contributions, says Jolley. "The original project gave us a nice springboard for creating the center," he continues. "Because we were successful, BlueCross BlueShield was pleased, and we've also been allowed to make available the [the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality] culture survey through our web site. This was not just one of these projects where you get funding and when the project no longer exists everything is over; we can do sustainable work beyond that defined project."
The new center is housed within the THA; it is not a separate corporation. "Our senior vice president, Chris Clarke, heads it up," says Jolley. "We've also been able to bring on a couple of other staff people, including Darlene Swartz — who was chief nursing officer at one of the hospitals participating in the collaborative."
Jolley says he is not altogether surprised at the success of the collaborative. "We've always had high expectations of our rural hospitals and knew they would perform well — but they exceeded our expectations," he says. "And that's not just a subjective opinion; if you look at the measures used to evaluate performance, you can tell it made a difference. I think the progress we made as far as changing the culture within those hospitals as relates to quality and patient safety was measurable."
The fact that the original project has garnered a lot of exposure, as well as state and national quality awards, also played a role in making the new center possible. The impact of the collaborative, Jolley summarizes, "goes way beyond this project."
Encouraged by the success of a patient safety initiative for rural hospitals (see cover story), Bill Jolley, MPA, vice president of the Tennessee Hospital Association (THA), has spearheaded the creation of the Tennessee Center for Patient Safety, which has "Allowed us to continue our work, not only with this project, but to expand into looking at infections and other areas of patient safety."You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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