The Wright Stuff: Excellence in safety: Every patient, every time
A message to the WVU Medicine-WVU Hospitals family
Our patients are the first priority in everything we do, and we strive – every day – to provide them with high quality care in a safe environment.
But we are human, and we make mistakes. In healthcare, those mistakes can lead to harm for our patients. In fact, medical errors during a hospital stay are the third-leading cause of death in the United States.
Fortunately, we are ahead of the curve for some of our quality measures, but we need to constantly strive to do better. We owe that to our patients and their families, who entrust us with their care.
That’s why I’m excited to announce that we’re launching a new campaign this week – Mountain ZERO – in an effort to reduce and eliminate hospital-acquired infections and other preventable events. “Zero harm” is the goal that we’re striving to achieve. Watch the video.
And while we’re calling it a campaign, maybe we should consider it a movement. We want patient safety to be at the forefront of everything we do. And we want to lead the state and nation in the reduction of medical errors.
The six quality measures that we are focusing on as part of the Mountain ZERO campaign are:
- Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI)
- Central line-associated blood stream infections (CLABSI)
- Blood clots (venous thromboembolism)
- Pressure ulcers
- Medication errors
- Falls with major injury
Details on these measures, including helpful resources, can be found on the new Mountain ZERO website on CONNECT. You can also visit the site to view the WVU Medicine Mountain ZERO results dashboard.
While these are the quality measures we’re focused on as part of this campaign, we have hundreds of other ongoing safety initiatives.
Mountain ZERO is starting at J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital and will launch system-wide by the end of the year.
Many of you are on the frontline of patient care and others support operations. Together, we can help WVU Medicine continue to build upon our culture of safety. We are committed to excellence in safety – every patient, every time.
