Adventist Health System recognized for patient safety excellence

The American Society for Health Care Risk Management (ASHRM) recently named Adventist Health System its 2018 Patient Safety Award winner. The ASHRM Patient Safety Award, in partnership with its sponsoring vendor Datix, honors patient safety excellence while celebrating the work of risk management teams and professionals to foster a culture of safety across their respective organizations.

'Receiving the ASHRM Patient Safety Award is a tremendous honor for our organization,' said Stacy Prince, vice president of risk management for Adventist Health System. 'It is a testament to our organization's leaders and team members, who make patient safety and care quality top priorities and I am so proud to be part of that.'

Adventist Health System's clinical risk management team was presented the award at the 2018 ASHRM annual conference in Nashville, Tennessee before a crowd of nearly 2,000 people.

AHS was recognized for developing a process for conducting a root cause analysis that places greater emphasis on evaluating the human factors associated with an unanticipated outcome. Now, the organization has a more robust and sustainable process for recognizing and addressing patient safety vulnerabilities to better identify opportunities to improve care, mitigate issues and share patient safety best practices across the system.

Winning the ASHRM Patient Safety Award reflects Adventist Health System's effort to deliver safer, more reliable, best-in-class, consumer-centric care, evidenced by the organization's recent adoption of four new culture and service standards. These new standards ' Keep Me Safe, Love Me, Own It and Make It Easy ' which inform every patient and team member interaction, were rolled out as part of The Whole Care Experience (TWCE). A unique and engaging training experience, TWCE aligned 60,000 team members to deliver consistently on the organization's mission, vision, values and service standards in an effort to engage its consumers more closely.

'Our pursuit of clinical excellence across the continuum means that we are always working on ways to develop and refine processes that enhance care delivery,' said Jean Hood, RN, MSN, CPHRM, CPPS, FASHRM, director of clinical risk management for Adventist Health System. 'Being recognized with this award really shows how our organization is prioritizing patient safety, and by doing so, fostering wholeness in the fulfillment of our mission of Extending the Healing Ministry of Christ.'

The American Society for Health Care Risk Management is a professional membership group of the American Hospital Association representing enterprise risk management, clinical, insurance, legal, patient safety and other related interests. ASHRM promotes effective and innovative risk management strategies and professional leadership through education, advocacy, publications, networking and interactions with leading health care organizations and government agencies.