Urogynecology specialist Whitney Hendrickson-Cahill details the steps an interdisciplinary team followed to reduce surgical site infections (SSIs) following hysterectomy procedures, aiming to improve patient outcomes, shorten recovery times, and reduce healthcare costs at University of Utah Health.
Every summer, Utahns head to the mountains for camping, biking, rafting and other activities. And every summer, many a family is left without a stove, or a helmet, or a…because it was left at home. Thrill-seeker and quality manager Cindy Spangler wants to prevent your next packing mishap with a customized camping checklist.
Believe it or not, the holidays have arrived. But have no fear, Senior Value Engineer Cindy Spangler is here with three steps you can take to carve out time now and avoid the woes of the holiday rush.
Your gut tells you a process could be better than it is—how do you back that feeling up with hard data? Senior value engineer Luca Boi shows how undertaking a baseline analysis can jumpstart your improvement project.
Performing a rapid critical appraisal helps evaluate a study for its worth by ensuring validity, meaningful data, and significance to the patient. Contributors Barb Wilson, Mary Jean Austria, and Tallie Casucci share a checklist of questions to complete a rapid critical appraisal efficiently and effectively.
Every summer, senior value engineer Cindy Spangler stocks our offices with an abundance of tomatoes, zucchini, and squash. We asked her to share how improvement thinking influences her gardening. Turns out, there are parallels–learn from others, stick to your scope, and learn from the mistakes.
When a medical error occurs, the patient is not the only person affected. Pediatric intensivist Brian Flaherty and psychologist Megan Call describe how caregivers can be impacted by medical error and provide strategies to cope.
The Zero Suicide initiative has been shown to significantly reduce suicides—and working toward zero suicides is our mission. Rachael Jasperson, Zero Suicide program manager, shares the framework for how we strive for this aspirational goal.
Safety as a value requires a cultural shift, not just getting people to talk about patient safety but to know how it impacts everything we do. U of U Health’s Director of Patient Safety Iona Thraen draws from the personal to highlight a system-based approach for moving from reactive to proactive patient safety.
Senior value engineer Cindy Spangler is back to share how a few simple improvement tips enable processes to reach new levels of reliability.
For National Injury Prevention Day, Spencer Steinbach, Senior Nursing Director, discusses safety and injury prevention in nursing and the outdoors and shares tips for your next adventure.
Psychological safety is crucial for the medical field to innovate and improve. Teams must feel safe and open to expressing concerns and reporting errors. Psychiatrists Jennifer O’Donohoe and Kristi Kleinschmit share tips to create a more psychologically safe environment for your team.
