Commitment to Quality Care
We know that getting extraordinary care in a safe and compassionate environment is extremely important to you and your loved ones. St.Vincent Health is committed to providing quality patient care in a safe and patient-centered healing environment.
The Ascension Health Destination Statement says:
"In accordance with our mission to provide quality care and services that are spiritually centered and holistic and that sustain and improve the health of individuals and communities serviced, quality means continually striving to exceed the expectations of those served for excellence in clinical and operational services."
St.Vincent Health continues to promote patient safety and quality through ongoing initiatives within the healthcare system. Select an area to learn more:
Our Call to Action
St.Vincent Health has committed to a Call To Action that defines our purpose and priorities as we lead the transformation of healthcare. Our call includes responsibility to improve healthcare quality and reduce medical errors.
Together we promise:
Healthcare That Works, Healthcare That Is Safe, Healthcare That Leaves No One Behind
To answer this Call, we incorporate the Institute of Medicine’s seven aims for improvement of care. In our healthcare ministry, the spirit also represents a significant dimension of health. Therefore, we hold that healthcare should be:
- Safe
- Efficient
- Effective
- Equitable
- Patient-centered
- Spiritual
- Timely
Safe Hands
Safe Hands is St.Vincent Health’s Patient Safety Initiative, in which we focus on the seven aims of Clinical Excellence to provide safe patient care.
- Continuous healing
- Customizing care centered on patient needs and values
- Recognizing that our patients are the sources of control
- Sharing knowledge
- Evidence-based decision making
- Emphasizing safety as a system priority
- Anticipating needs of patients and providers
We measure the care we provide using long-range goals targeted over five years, clinical outcome measures and process measures. The measures are reported regularly to Ascension Health.
Clinical Excellence Council
St.Vincent Health has also established the Clinical Excellence Council, which is dedicated to continually improving the quality of care provided within the St.Vincent Health system.
Membership in the Clinical Excellence Council
- Physicians
- Nurse Executives
- Mission
- Quality
- System Operations
- St.Vincent Health
- Senior Leadership
Continuing Medical Education
Guided by our core values, St.Vincent Health provides a challenging and nurturing environment that allows our providers to excel personally and professionally. St.Vincent Health offers a range of continuing medical education (CME) and other educational opportunities to our clinical staff.
Measuring Quality
There is no universal agreement on how quality should be measured, so different reports often consider a variety of factors in assessing quality. The following factors are a few examples of quality indicators that area frequently recognized as some of the best indicators:
Credentials – Board-certified physicians have completed the training that a specialty board requires, have practiced for a specified period of time and passed a difficult written and oral examination. Board certification is generally accepted as a good indication of competence and experience.
Experience – The more experience the doctor has, the better the results. According to a report published in the Annals of Internal Medicine (September 17, 2002), the majority of studies find a lower patient mortality rate for a given procedure when the hospital or physician has high-volume experience performing that procedure.
Range of Services – Hospitals with a broad range of services are better equipped to manage complications, should they occur. For diseases where many options for care exist ranging from prevention, therapy, non-surgical intervention to surgery, your physician has more care choices.
Outcomes – Today, outcomes are viewed in terms of various clinical topics, including mortality, complication rates, infection rates, Caesarean section (C-section) rates, and other clinical outcomes measurement categories. Risk can be reduced by choosing a hospital with lower mortality rates and/or higher long-term success rates.
Quality Data
Quality data reporting can be useful in understanding more about what kinds of questions to ask when making decisions about healthcare. Various types of quality-related data are available from many different sources, including insurance companies, the federal government, hospitals, employers and other national groups such as Leapfrog. Below are some examples:
AARP
The American Association of Retired Persons conducts a survey that is published annually in Modern Maturity. Factors used in this survey include reputation, mortality, JCAHO score and training.
America’s Top Doctors
Every year Castle Connolly publishes America’s Top Doctors, which lists the best doctors in each of 41 specialties. The sole factor used in this survey is peer review.
BestDoctors.com
BestDoctors.com is an Internet-based subscription service, where consumers can access lists of “best” doctors according to specific area codes and specialties. Again, this service is strictly based on peer review.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
CMS uses a set of ten quality measures that have gone through years of extensive testing for validity and reliability. They are endorsed by the National Quality Forum, a voluntary standard-setting, consensus-building organization representing providers, consumers, purchasers and researchers.
Healthgrades.com
Healthgrades.com is also an Internet-based provider that assigns ratings for the following areas: cardiac, neuroscience, neurosurgery, orthopaedics, pulmonary/respiratory, obstetrics and vascular surgery. The score is derived using outcomes for specific procedures in each specialty.
The Leapfrog Group
Composed of more than 145 public and private organizations that provide healthcare benefits, The Leapfrog Group works with medical experts throughout the United States to identify problems and propose solutions believed to effect outcomes.
Solucient
Solucient conducts a survey of hospital management and publishes its top 100 hospitals. Because Solucient measures the quality of hospital management, the majority of factors are business-related (profitability, productivity, expenses and revenue). The three clinical factors used are length of stay, mortality and complications.
U.S.News & World Report
The most widely used source of quality information is the annual U.S.News & World Report Best Hospitals survey. This survey uses three evenly weighted factors to rank hospitals in 17 specialties. The three factors are reputation, risk-adjusted mortality and technology.
Did You Know?
Patient safety has received a great deal of national attention in the years since the Institute of Medicine (IOM) revealed the high incidence of medical errors and sizable gaps in healthcare quality in our nation.
Nationally, 22.8 million Americans report that they or a family member have experienced a medical error of some kind.
- The Commonwealth Fund Report: 2002
Nationally, about 7,000 people die annually from medication errors.
- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality