Hospitals in pursuit of excellence

Safety Culture

At the AHA/Health Forum Leadership Summit in July, David Pryor, M.D., chief medical officer for St. Louis-based Ascension Health, described his system's ongoing efforts to create a culture of safety. The effort started in 2003 with an emphasis on standardizing care to reduce patient mortality rates in the wake of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's 100,000 Lives campaign and has evolved into its current effort, known as Healing Without Harm by 2014. Back in 2003, Ascension Health leaders calculated that 900 lives a year could be saved with improved patient safety. The leadership team then came up with a compelling way to communicate the importance of the new effort to staff."We began starting each day with a moment of silence for the three people who died today who didn't need to," Pryor said. "That's a very sobering way to approach this." For more information on Ascension Health?s Healing Without Harm by 2014 campaign, contact David Pryor at dpryor@ascensionhealth.org