Do you know what your hospital is up to? Health care professionals are coming together; setting aside their competitive tendencies to help one another improve patient care. How? Hospitals are helping each other excel in a unique peer learning format where best practices are shared in critical care, surgical care, perinatal care and infection prevention.  As a result of this collaboration, in the last three years, more than 3,500 lives have been saved and $63 million in costs avoided by hospitals participating in the Patient Safety First (PSF) Collaboratives. 

In the PSF Collaborative, it’s not about competition; it’s about collaboration: sharing strategies, tools, inspiration and success.  It’s an initiative embraced by hospitals to help improve quality well before it became the buzzword of legislation. And it has been critical to making real progress in areas of concern for consumers and facilities alike.

Continued progress depends on continuing to do the work and sharing what is learned.  For the greatest impact on improving quality, having a robust data set is key. Future efforts should be coordinated statewide; and systematic evaluation of these initiatives is a must. Central to it all is cultivating a culture among hospitals, the public and government that is open to discussing errors with an eye to solving problems rather than punishing them. Shining a light on opportunities to improve health care delivery rather than perpetuating a culture of fear.  It is often said that the single greatest impediment to error prevention in the medical industry is that we punish people for making mistakes.

Health care is an industry with its share of silos — whether between departments or between hospitals. PSF teaches hospitals many lessons, most effectively, how collaboration and transparency moves us forward.  Core to this learning is a collective understanding that – we are better together. To learn more visit:  http://www.hasc.org/southern-california-patient-safety-first-collaborative.