Center for Patient Safety and
Health Care Quality
To promote the delivery of safe, high-quality health care - one of Abington Memorial Hospital's five key organizational pillars - the hospital has created a Center for Patient Safety and Health Care Quality.
The Center for Safety and Quality or CSQ - its shorthand name - brings together personnel committed to clinical safety and quality under the same leadership. "Its mission is to promote the delivery of safe, high-quality health care at AMH," says John J. Kelly, M.D., chief of staff. (bio sheet for John J. Kelly, M.D.)
"We're a consulting service," says Maureen Ann Frye, certified registered nurse practitioner, the CSQ director. "We don't own patient safety and quality, but we understand the processes and know how to help our units and departments achieve our highest safety and quality goals."
(bio sheet for Maureen Ann Frye, M.S.N., C.R.N.P.)
Doron Schneider, M.D., Chief Safety and Quality Officer, agrees. "We are the engine for safety and quality education at Abington," he says. "We're here, not only to help all our staff members understand safety and quality, but also to encourage innovation by unlocking their potential to offer solutions to problems they see on a daily basis." (bio sheet for Doron Schneider, M.D.)
Created in the fall of 2006, the CSQ also includes the Department of Epidemiology. CSQ works intimately with such departments as Performance Outcomes, for scorecard management, Lean process re-engineering (an effort to improve efficiency and drive out waste in healthcare) and the Department of Patient Advocacy, which focuses on patients' concerns about their care.
The CSQ is also responsible for close participation in a new, novel contract with Independence Blue Cross, which guarantees the hospital additional compensation if it achieves certain quality outcomes. One example: an already successful effort to increase the percentage of patients who receive the right antibiotic at the right time prior to surgery in order to prevent wound infections.
