The Quality Quarterly

CHPSO was established by the California Hospital Association (CHA) in 2009. The longest-listed patient safety organization (PSO) in the United States, CHPSO is also one of the largest — it began in California, and over the years added members in Arizona, Hawaii, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, and Washington. In the last quarter of 2019 and into early 2020, CHPSO will see a major expansion to a total of 19 states and nearly 550 members. The vast majority of CHPSO facilities are acute care facilities, but CHPSO members also include ambulatory clinics, home health agencies, hospice care providers, and specialty hospitals.

As CHPSO membership grows, so will the CHPSO database. CHPSO currently has nearly 2.5 million safety event reports that it utilizes to provide feedback to members via safe tables, newsletter articles, alerts, custom research, and periodic reports. We anticipate that 2020 will bring one of the biggest single-year increases in the number of event reports that CHPSO receives. The chart below outlines increases in reported events over the past year. 

With the vast number of potential members, new members, and current members with renewed interest in PSO participation, CHPSO has seen a significant increase in the number of organizations seeking out education and support regarding PSOs, the value PSOs provide, and how to go about adapting their patient safety-related activities to maximize the value of PSO participation. To meet these educational needs and ensure health care providers are knowledgeable about PSO participation, CHPSO will continue to offer free educational webinars on a variety of topics. For a list of upcoming events as well as archived webinars, visit www.chpso.org/upcoming-events. Don’t see what you’re looking for? Contact us to request new content.

Each year, CHPSO provides members with an update of the safety event reports submitted to the CHPSO database. Under a federal law, CHPSO provides a protection to hospitals by collecting safety event data. In turn, CHPSO analyzes these data from member organizations and provides specific feedback to hospitals and shares general, de-identified information with the health care community. To be included in this year’s analysis, events must be submitted by Jan. 31. For a list of members, visit the CHPSO website. 

With questions or for more information, contact info@chpso.org.

In the coming year, HQI will continue to provide member support on pressing patient safety issues, including a particular focus on three main areas:

Data Enrichment

Vast amounts of data are available through hospital submissions (from California and, soon, 19 other states) and state systems. Both CHPSO and HQI are uniquely positioned to engage in a predictive analytics initiative that will be able to detect “signals” in patient safety and quality improvement trends. These trends will then be disseminated to member facilities so they may take necessary action and reverse any adverse effects.

Joy and Meaning

Health care employees are faced with ever-increasing pressures and stresses, leading to unprecedented levels of burnout. The results are increased turnover, low employee satisfaction, and significantly increased possibilities for patient harm. HQI will embark on an initiative to improve communication, support staff involved in stressful events, and foster a Just Culture that supports the principles of high reliability. Expected outcomes include:

• Increased incident reporting
• Lower turnover rates
• Improved employee satisfaction rates
• Greater employee satisfaction
• Decreased costs
• An improved overall patient safety environment

Opioid / Methamphetamine Crisis

HQI is exploring partnership opportunities to combat the current crisis. Offering our extensive data resources and ability to convene more than 400 member organizations, HQI will engage in a yet-to-be determined initiative to tackle this national and state emergency.