The Quality Quarterly

The CHPSO 2019 Annual Report was released on May 13, 2020. This report, which covers the period of January 1–December 31, 2020, focuses on CHPSO’s year in review with highlights for 2020. The report is available online on the CHPSO website. 

The ICD-10 codes between Z55 and Z65 are the social determinants of health (SDOH) discharge codes. Social determinants of health include factors like:  

• Socioeconomic status 
• Education 
• Neighborhood and physical environment 
• Employment 
• Social support networks  
• Access to health care  

Addressing social determinants of health is important for improving health and reducing longstanding disparities in health and health care. 

The Collaborative Healthcare Patient Safety Organization  (CHPSO) and the Hospital Quality Institute (HQI) celebrated Patient Safety Awareness Week with a series of very well attended and highly informative webinars. Many organizations took advantage of these educational offerings as opportunities to bring multidisciplinary teams together to learn more about these important patient safety and quality improvement topics. If you missed these sessions, we encourage you to take advantage of the recordings and associated materials. Here are recaps of each of the five webinars:

HQI, in cooperation with the Patient Safety Movement Foundation and the California Hospital Association, creates and distributes quarterly dashboards of publicly available quality data for each California Hospital Association acute-care member hospital. These model dashboards currently provide information on eight measures: 

Five outcome measures: 

After historic low rates in 2000-2001, California is seeing a resurgence of congenital syphilis. Naturally, congenital syphilis rates closely mirror primary and secondary syphilis rates among females aged 15-44.  

While California hospitals have made strides in improving overall maternity care, we continue to witness strong racial disparities in maternal mortality and morbidity in our state — as in the rest of the nation. Disparities persist even after accounting for age, income, education, health insurance status, and other socio-economic attributes, and evidence points to implicit bias and racism as major factors in these inequities.   

For the women and men on the front lines of healing those afflicted with coronavirus, the past several weeks have tested not only their clinical skills, but also their physical limits and their emotional fortitude. 

And with many more weeks, possibly months, before they can exhale again, they need all the help they can get — now. 

Postpartum depression and other perinatal mood and anxiety disorders are the most common complication of childbirth, affecting approximately one in five birthing women, with prevalence rates even higher in low-income communities and communities of color.  Unfortunately, few women are diagnosed and even fewer receive treatment.   

About twice a month, CHPSO hosts a Safe Table forum focused on a specific clinical topic. These members-only forums are designed to empower providers to engage in robust, meaningful patient safety and quality improvement activities.  The group explores situations in which there are systematic concerns or issues that member organizations have encountered and the opportunity to share solutions and/or obtain advice. 

 As one of the many complementary services offered to members, CHPSO hosts a regularly scheduled Legal Counsel Discussion Group Call designed to support an ongoing exploration of the legal privileges and challenges of the Patient Safety & Quality Improvement Act of 2005 (PSQIA). These calls, which are typically held quarterly, are designed to assist our members and their legal counsel in developing a deeper understanding of the PSQIA. These calls also offer members and their legal counsel the opportunity to hear about current cases and stay abreast of recent legal de

A recent webinar addressing how health care professionals can support their peers in need has been recorded and is now available online. 

A recent webinar addressing how health care professionals can support their peers in need has been recorded and is now available online. 

Health care providers must provide precision care, perform highly complex procedures and treatments, and cope with increasingly stressful care environments. To support their work, a variety of innovations have been devised to increase patient safety by decreasing preventable harm related to human factors, technological advances, and complex care environments. Certain types of infusion pumps, often called “smart pumps,” are one such innovation.

As collaborative partners, CHPSO and the Patient Safety Authority (PSA) share resources and tools to help our members improve quality and advance their patient safety efforts. As part of these collaborative efforts, CHPSO is pleased to announce that the PSA has launched a new publication, Patient Safety, a journal unlike any other you’ve seen.