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Press Ganey this week announced a new initiative focused on patient safety and is inviting healthcare leaders to participate. The goal is to align best practices across governance, systems and frontline care delivery.
With Press Ganey's new Zero Harm 24/7 program, the patient experience analytics firm is developing a defined set of critical, aspirational commitments across core areas of safety leadership. And it hopes a first cohort of participating providers could help shape health systems' safety strategies and establish new industry safety standards.
WHY IT MATTERS
Press Ganey maintains a national safety culture benchmarking database and conducts annual research on a range of topics related to safe healthcare delivery. It points to recent data showing that more than a million healthcare workers have recently reported persistent gaps between leadership intent and frontline experiences.
And when the healthcare workforce reports a low perception of safety culture, there are real consequences for patient outcomes, workforce engagement and retention, Dr. Tejal Gandhi, Press Ganey's chief safety and transformation officer, said.
"Throughout my career, I've seen safety named as a priority, but too often, it is diluted by competing pressures, fragmented responsibility and a lack of clear accountability at the top," Gandhi said in a statement announcing the initiative.
Toward that goal, Press Ganey aims to convene a cohort of health systems to serve as early collaborators in Zero Harm 24/7.
The first healthcare organizations to join the initiative will help design and test a standardized safety framework while ongoing dialogue at the C-suite and board levels within their organizations can help ensure it is a top-down priority, according to the company.
As they contribute their unique perspectives and internal best practices, they'll problem-solve with other high-performing health systems. In return, cohort participants will have access to the Press Ganey Patient Safety Organization's customized data analytics and research that identify specific safety gaps.
THE LARGER TREND
Patient safety challenges are exacerbated by healthcare workforce challenges and could be complicated by artificial intelligence-driven platforms that present bias and other risks.
For example, data-driven organizations can prevent incidents that result in injury – and also reduce costs.
"By fostering employee buy-in around incident reporting, organizations can shift from a reactive to a proactive approach in healthcare safety management," Heidi Raines, founder and CEO of healthcare safety software vendor Performance Health Partners, told Healthcare IT News in a Q&A on data-driven leadership.
Press Ganey, which customer and employer experience company Qualtrics acquired last year, has been building an artificial intelligence-enabled healthcare experience and market research platform to better inform health system leaders.
"AI is rapidly transforming every industry, and organizations need proven, innovative solutions grounded in deep expertise to move from insight to impact faster," Patrick Ryan, chairman and CEO of Press Ganey, said in a statement at the time.
ON THE RECORD
"Zero Harm is a lofty goal, and it must be the North Star for safety in healthcare," Ryan said in the new announcement. "Zero Harm 24/7 puts that expectation on the table and reflects our commitment to do the hard, sustained work, together with our partners in healthcare – work that demands discipline, innovation and shared accountability."
Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.
