Texas Children’s named hospital of the month in recognition of patient safety initiatives

December 23, 2014

122414patientsafety640

The Solutions for Patient Safety (SPS) network has named Texas Children’s Hospital of the Month for the month of December in recognition of the organization’s efforts to improve patient safety and decrease patient harm. The award recognizes the hospital for many steps taken toward increasing patient safety including the organization of 10 different hospital acquired conditions (HAC) teams which include more than 100 employees and clinical staff. These teams review best practices from other hospitals within the network and implement those that work, while also sharing our successes with others. The award also recognizes the teams which have seen significant improvements since taking on new protocols. Over the last year, five teams have demonstrated significant decreases in harm by implementing process recommendations from the SPS network. The falls, surgical site infections, central line associated bloodstream infection and urinary tract infection HAC teams have fully adopted SPS prescribed bundles.

“As an organization, we are proud to be a part of a nationwide effort to decrease harm to patients,” said Trudy Leidich, director of quality and safety. “Through the Solutions for Patient Safety initiative, we have been able to share our best practices with other children’s hospitals and learn from their efforts as well. Being named hospital of the month is simply an acknowledgment that we are doing everything we can to improve safety within our hospital and we are honored to get this recognition.”

The SPS, formerly known as the Ohio Collaborative, began as a group of Ohio children’s hospitals working toward eliminating patient harm and soon expanded to a network of more than 80 hospitals across the nation, including Texas Children’s, which lead a national effort to implement the best strategies for creating the highest possible safety protocols for patient care.

Data sharing in the form of outcomes and process measures is another key component of the hospital’s participation in the collaborative. This data is combined with data from other participating hospitals to help identify trends and refine practice which result in an improvement of care. Since January 2013, Texas Children’s Hospital has submitted 100 percent of its HAC and Readmissions outcome data to the SPS.

Teams from Texas Children’s will continue this ongoing partnership with SPS and children’s hospitals across the nation to improve the quality and safety of care to our patients.