USA Health wins second national award for safety improvement

For the second year in a row, USA Health has won a national award from healthcare consultant Press Ganey for improving safety by significantly reducing serious safety events.

USA Health became one of nine healthcare systems to win the 2024 Human Experience (HX) Achievement Award for SSER^® Reduction, achieving a 73% reduction in its system-level serious safety event rate. A serious safety event is a variation from expected practice that results in death, permanent harm, or severe temporary harm. USA Health also demonstrated strong scores in safety culture perception regarding safety culture prevention and reporting, and safety culture resources and reporting during a safety culture survey in September 2024.

“Winning this award, especially for the second year in a row, demonstrates our commitment to making safety our No. 1 priority,” said Owen Bailey, MSHA, FACHE, USA Health chief executive officer and senior associate vice president for medical affairs. “We are constantly looking for ways to improve and provide the safest and best care for patients.”

Nationwide, 23 facilities were recognized with awards by Press Ganey for their improvements and corresponding strong scores in safety culture perception. USA Health had previously won the 2023 HX Achievement Award for SSER^® Reduction for achieving a 74% reduction in its system-level serious safety event rate.

In January 2020, USA Health created a robust safety department and launched the Safety Starts with Me initiative to guide the health system on its journey toward high reliability. USA Health partnered with Press Ganey to build a comprehensive program tailored to meet its unique needs.

USA Health implemented systemwide education on universal skills, fair and just culture, and safety leadership skills. Among the initiatives were a safety coach program to invite input from frontline staff on safety concerns and ideas for improvement, and a serious safety event review committee to provide tools to objectively review cases for patient harm.

Following the acquisition of Providence Hospital, USA Health has been working on a systemwide approach to safety and high reliability, including training Providence staff on the Safety Starts with Me program and safety coach initiative. “We will continue to work with Press Ganey to combine our serious safety event review teams, lessons learned, and hard-wiring safety and reliability in our leaders’ day-to-day work,” said Becky Pomrenke, M.S.N., RN, CNL, CNS, director of patient safety for the health system. “We will also focus on increasing safety-event reporting, as research shows hospitals with increased safety reporting have decreased serious safety events.”

Michael Chang, M.D., system chief medical officer, said USA Health continues to move in the direction of meeting the definition of high reliability, defined as “performance as intended, consistent over time.”

“This second award is really a remarkable achievement in that it represents continued improvement after an initial leap forward,” Chang said. “Our intent is to continue this trajectory, even though it becomes progressively harder to improve year after year.”

Other winners of the 2024 HX Achievement Award for SSER^® Reduction include the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Nebraska Medicine, ECU Health, Texas Health Resources, Roper St. Francis, Catholic Health, Novant Health, and Bristol Hospital.

The award is part of Press Ganey’s annual ranking of the top hospitals and health systems in the country. Press Ganey works with more than 41,000 healthcare facilities in its mission to empower organizations to deliver the best experiences, turning data into insights that drive innovation and action.