Southwest Memorial Hospital recently joined more than 30 other Colorado hospitals that have signed a quality initiative pledge sponsored by the Colorado Hospital Association. The goal of the initiative is to completely eliminate avoidable incidents that cause harm to patients in the hospital setting.
Known as the Elimination of Harm Campaign, this patient safety program seeks to reduce the number of unexpected deaths, hospital acquired infections, and hospital readmissions to zero by 2015. All hospitals have quality assurance programs in place, and signing on with this pledge is an added step in raising awareness and creating systems designed to achieve patient safety goals.
Providing care efficiently and keeping healthcare costs down are important, especially in a small hospital like ours, said Kent Helwig, CEO of Southwest Health System, Inc., parent company of Southwest Memorial Hospital. But nothing is more important than patient safety and delivering the highest quality care. Thats why we signed on with this initiative, Helweg stated in a written release provided by Southwest Memorial Hospital.
Hospitals that become part of this initiative agree to sustained efforts toward achieving the three main goals (as well as other quality goals unique to their facilities), to share their best practices with hospitals statewide, and to review relevant data with front-line healthcare providers within the organization.