Il forum sulla Qualità di QualitiAmo

[QualitiAmo - Stefania]

Un articolo del Times Union dal titolo: "Area hospitals make strides in quality of care".

Questa è la versione tradotta in italiano con il traduttore automatico di Google.

The June 21 article, "Data in on local care," reports on patient safety and quality in New York hospitals.

Quality of care and how to truly measure it is an issue many of us in the health care community have grappled with for years. Every provider claims to offer it, but how do we really know who's delivering?

A multitude of "report cards" rate hospitals on quality parameters, but we now know many are based on billing information, not true clinical data derived from medical records. Some companies even have associated consulting businesses that "help" organizations improve survey scores -- for a hefty consulting fee.

Northeast Health has adopted a different approach to quality by empowering our physicians, nurses and other supporting staff to make frontline decisions and assume leadership positions in quality initiatives.

Employing Toyota's LEAN production model and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's evidenced-based medicine philosophy, I can share quantifiable data, which show our organizations are making progress in improving quality. For example, Samaritan Hospital's raw mortality rate has decreased by 30 percent since 2005 and Albany Memorial's by 17 percent.

We're also proud of our patient satisfaction scores. Recent survey results from the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems showed both hospitals combined ranked first in eight out of 10 patient satisfaction measures compared to other local facilities for July 2007 to June 2008.

I offer this data not to claim we're better than anyone else. I share it as evidence we're making quality strides every day because it's the right thing to do.

Norman E. Dascher Jr.

Chief executive officer

Albany Memorial Hospital Samaritan Hospital