October 10, 2003

Strategic Planning Task Force: Quality and Patient Safety Highlight

Since the MGH embarked on an intensive strategic planning effort several months ago to determine the future direction of its clinical programs, members of seven task forces have been meeting, planning and preparing to make preliminary recommendations to the Strategic Planning Steering Committee. Hotline will be highlighting the work of some of these task forces during the upcoming weeks.

While there now is a nationwide focus to raise the standards for quality and safety measures in hospitals, that focus has been present at the MGH for years. In fact, it dates back to the work of Ernest Codman, MD, in the early 20th century, proceeds through landmark work in anesthesia safety in the 1970s and 80s, and most recently continues with the establishment of the MGH Office of Quality and Patient Safety two years ago. One of the seven strategic planning task forces now is zeroing in on this topic to coordinate the hospital's quality improvement and patient safety activities and take them to a new level.

The Quality and Patient Safety Task Force is led by Brit Nicholson, MD, MGH chief medical officer, Jeanette Ives Erickson, RN, MS, senior vice president for Patient Care Services and chief nurse, and Gregg Meyer, MD, medical director for the Massachusetts General Physicians Organization (MGPO). According to Nicholson, the members of the task force are committed to establishing a clear direction for the MGH and the MGPO on quality and safety issues as well as setting priorities for these efforts and integrating them into the hospital's culture.

"Individually and departmentally, we have always been concerned about the quality and safety of our patients," says Nicholson. "However, with this nationwide movement, we now are looking at hospital systems to make sure they can support individuals and departments in maintaining high quality and safety in patient care." Meyer adds, "We want the work of this committee to transform our hospital and care providers so that we can lead the nation in health care quality and safety."

The task force has three subcommittees — culture and education, priorities and next steps, and measurement and reporting. The subcommittee on priorities will include two subgroups focusing on clinical priorities and environment of care.

The charge of the subcommittee on culture and education is to develop initiatives that will help weave patient care quality and staff safety priorities into the fabric of the MGH culture. Some of these initiatives will include developing a safety award program, creating forums for employees to discuss quality and safety issues, implementing educational plans on quality and safety issues for all MGHers, and creating a communications strategy about the hospital's quality and safety agenda.

The main goal of the subcommittee on priorities and next steps is to develop a process for prioritizing institutional initiatives on patient safety and quality. Members of this group also will be making recommendations for short-term and long-term goals for the hospitalwide quality and safety effort, taking into consideration the progress of current programs that already focus on these areas.

The measurement subgroup will be developing comprehensive systems for monitoring and measuring quality and safety initiatives. Members plan to do so in a number of ways — such as improving the integration of data measurement with current clinical and administrative systems, standardizing the reporting of safety incidents and close calls, developing more widely spread communications on the measures of safety goals and outcomes, and enhancing communications about the MGH and MGPO quality and safety mission through the use of patient-centered narratives.

Any employee is welcome to submit ideas to the Strategic Planning Steering Committee by visiting http://is.partners.org/mghstrategicplan or by sending written ideas through interoffice mail to the Strategic Planning Steering Committee, Bulfinch 240.