Last week, with record numbers of you, I attended the CEO & Trustee Patient Safety Summit. This event brings together over 300 hundred trustees, commissioners and hospital executives to talk about how hospitals can make patients safer. This meeting creates a safe space so everyone can work together and address the twin challenges of managing and governing these extraordinarily complex institutions.
I’ve had the opportunity to see other states in action, and the safety work we do in Washington is truly exceptional. The premise of the summit — and the entire patient safety program — is that it’s all based on being transparent. There is no improvement without honest data, and there is no improvement without sharing that data with boards, staff and the community.
We know we haven’t built the perfect health care delivery system — far from it. But we know we’ve made progress. Our approach is working. We know how far we have to go, and we know that our families and our neighbors are depending on us.
We all owe a tremendous “thank you” to the passionate individuals behind the event: Carol Wagner, Senior Vice President for Patient Safety, is expertly assisted by Megan Boucher, operations manager, to put on the event (and a great number of other staff as well!). We also owe our gratitude to our Patient Safety Committee co-chairs: Bill Robertson, President and CEO of Multicare Health System and Preston Simmons, Chief Executive Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett. Bill, Preston and the rest of the committee continuously push us forward.
Onward,
Scott Bond
President and CEO
scottb@wsha.org
