Patient Safety & Quality Resource Center

Public Accountability for Quality and
Patient Safety Online Toolkit 

 This new toolkit, designed to help hospitals respond to media and other inquiries about performance and patient safety, as well as to communicate proactively about these issues, is available online only as a benefit of membership. The kit is based on THA-Board approved "Principles for Communicating about Quality/Patient Safety Issues." Resources and tools in the kit will help hospitals develop their own policies and procedures related to public accountability for quality and patient safety.

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Conference Presentation Available

Following the Texas Hospital Association’s Leadership Conference on Oct. 12, 2005, a number of hospitals requested copies of Jean Chenoweth’s presentation "The Changing Role of the Board in the World of Public Reporting." The PowerPoint presentation is available for download.

For those who may have missed the presentation, Chenoweth, senior vice president of the Center for Healthcare Improvement at Solucient LLC, gave a compelling overview of the world of public reporting. According to Chenoweth, public access to hospital performance measures is changing the way hospital boards and CEOs relate to their communities, as consumers arm themselves with facts designed to help them make more informed choices. She suggests that boards need to support the executive team in navigating through uncharted waters. The forces behind public reporting, and their impact on trustees, executives and the medical staff, as well as the actions needed to thrive in this new environment, were reviewed in this informative session.