To address gaps in organizational capacity, health systems can establish a more efficient chain of command and division of responsibilities.
Before leaders began pouring resources into improving their quality program, Alameda Health System was in a predicament. In 2020, the San Francisco Bay Area’s public health system received a low hospital safety score from Leapfrog Group and five condition-level findings from the Joint Commission accrediting agency, resulting in the refuses preliminary recognition and can feel tension among employees.
Nearly 3,500 employees went on strike that October, citing shortages, unsafe conditions and worker shortages. In turn, Alameda County supervisors called for the health system’s board to resign, with five members leaving; The system’s former CEO submitted his resignation at the end of 2020.
Dr Taft Bhuket, head of gastroenterology and hepatology, who serves on the board of directors, said: “These are many factors that led me to consider a way out, wondering if this is the place to be. suitable for you or not. . Now as chairman of the board, Bhuket said, “It was the darkest moment I’ve ever felt in any healthcare organization.”
Bhuket — and Alameda Health System — found relief when new leadership joined in early 2021. In addition to rebuilding trust and increasing employee engagement, executives have set goals The goal is to build a quality department that combines central administration with more support for the front-line -quality workers line.
The system has established a core quality team, along with committees in various departments that help manage quality concerns and communicate them to the board, Bhuket said.
“We were very thoughtful about building a quality department, putting the right people in the right seats on the right bus,” he said. “We tried to give the quality team tools so they could measure things and create the infrastructure for them to do their job.”
A particularly useful tool for Bhuket is the Midas Quality Control Monitor. Produced by Houston-based Symplr, the software platform uses reports from clinicians to provide data on areas of intervention, analyze treatment outcomes, and identify opportunities. improve. Allocating responsibility to caregivers and automating data production through Midas has streamlined the work for the quality team and eased much of the burden on them, Bhuket said.
