Hospitals in pursuit of excellence

From the Boardroom to the Bedside

As hospitals and health systems adjust to a new health care environment, quality performance and reporting will continue to rise in importance. Successful organizations will emphasize the primacy of quality as an organizational objective, leaders at Truman Medical Centers in Kansas City, Mo., say. Every year, the Truman executive team carefully determines the strategic plan for the following year by examining organizational progress with the National Patient Safety Goals and other quality benchmarks. Following the yearly meeting, executive leaders work closely with front-line clinicians to build new quality and patient safety initiatives. Overall, the initiative has focused on harm reduction and reporting; system clinicians now report approximately 5,000 events yearly on a sliding scale. John Bluford, president and CEO of Truman Medical Centers, says the effort relies on a mix on leadership from the board, where quality is now the first item on the agenda, and clinical execution. "We talk quality first," Bluford says. "That's a big change."