You may have heard the oft-cited quote, “Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.” High-reliability organizations are ones that are set up to produce predictable, high-quality results and safety in a complex and high-risk environment. Hospitals and health systems that work at being high-reliability organizations are in a continuous state of self-monitoring and optimization.
The result is not only a consistently high degree of quality and safety but also across-the-board benefits for the organization. Boards of such organizations can be confident that the design of their system will produce the desired results, including:
- Lowering the per-unit cost of care
- Reducing inefficiencies
- Limiting liability exposure and expense
- Optimizing reimbursement through value-based care programs and clinical documentation improvement
- Optimizing staff engagement, retention, and well-being
In this article written for The Governance Institute, Andrew Resnick, MD, Chief Medical and Quality Officer at Chartis, offers key actions for boards of health systems that are pursuing high reliability.
“As leaders in our communities, we are all striving toward the same goal of providing safe, high-quality care.”
