A broad and structured approach to improving patient safety and quality: lessons from Denver Health

America's health care systems have not achieved the desired level of quality and safety. This may be due, in part, to the lack of clear and robust approaches for institutions to follow. Denver Health, an integrated, public safety-net institution, developed a multifaceted, structured approach to...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inHealth Affairs Vol. 30; no. 4; pp. 612 - 618
Main Authors Gabow, Patricia A, Mehler, Philip S
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States The People to People Health Foundation, Inc., Project HOPE 01.04.2011
Subjects
American Recovery & Reinvestment Act 2009-US
Antibiotics
Colorado
Communication
Emergency medical care
Emergency medical services
Health care access
Health care policy
Health facilities
Health maintenance organizations
HMOs
Hospitals
Humans
Incentive plans
Indigent care
Information technology
Medical Errors - prevention & control
Medication Errors - prevention & control
Mortality
Multi-Institutional Systems
Organizational Case Studies
Patient safety
Physicians
Public health
Quality Assurance, Health Care - organization & administration
Quality improvement
Quality of care
Safety
Safety Management - organization & administration
Teams
Total quality
Colorado
Denver Colorado
United States > US
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Summary:America's health care systems have not achieved the desired level of quality and safety. This may be due, in part, to the lack of clear and robust approaches for institutions to follow. Denver Health, an integrated, public safety-net institution, developed a multifaceted, structured approach to quality and safety improvement that has produced positive outcomes. For example, in 2010 Denver Health ranked first of 112 US academic medical centers in terms of actual mortality observed relative to the national mortality rate. Given these results, we argue that regulatory bodies should refocus their oversight to consider an institution's overall structured approach to quality improvement and safety, instead of monitoring individual small outcomes, such as a patient's receipt of antibiotics for pneumonia within six hours of arriving in the emergency department.
ISSN:0278-2715
1544-5208
DOI:10.1377/hlthaff.2011.0042