March 2018
Welcome to our new True North e-newsletter! This is designed to replace our previous monthly e-mails to all physicians and AHPs and hopefully provide a better vehicle to share information about UCSF Health improvement activities, upcoming events, and perhaps other objectives based on continued feedback  from all of you.
What is “True North” and why is it important?
True North pillars represent our long-term objectives –  what we need to accomplish to achieve our vision -  because they serve as a constant guide for aligning and prioritizing our work. The UCSF Health True North pillars should not surprise you. In fact, we hope the areas of patient experience, quality and safety, our people, financial strength, strategic growth and learning health system reflect active improvement efforts you’ve participated in or have observed in your practice settings. The True North pillars are also important since they serve as a communication vehicle and common language to link our daily work to what's important in allowing us to continually become better versions of ourselves.
How are we doing with our True North metrics this month?
Please review our  current   True North scorecard that continues to serve as one lens into our organizational priorities and performance. This month's communication focuses on our readmission work and an update about our opioid prescribing improvement efforts.
What have we learned from our readmission rates? Do we truly have room for improvement?

Readmission rates are imperfect but their national focus have helped drive necessary efforts to improve care transitions for patients. At UCSF Health, our readmissions team analyzes our condition-specific (e.g., CHF, COPD, Stroke, MI) and service-specific readmission rates with a goal of identifying true gaps in quality, access or timeliness in care. While our overall readmission rates have been difficult to further reduce, we've seen improvements in certain areas and have invested in key interventions to improve care (e.g., post-discharge RN phone calls). We continue to determine how best to truly predict what puts patients at risk for readmission (and admission) that we can actively prevent.
There is continued discussion about the national opioid epidemic. What are we doing at UCSF Health to address it?

We convened a multidisciplinary task force last fall to learn about current efforts, identify shared problems, and define key priorities to improve our opioid prescribing practices across UCSF Health. The following slide deck was presented at this month's Quality Improvement Executive Committee to share updates, describe the 4 priorities, and provide an estimated timeline for the work. The first priority is building a UCSF Health opioid data registry and we’re actively moving towards that goal. We continue to welcome your input and involvement on this problem as we learn about new areas every month already taking action. We will plan to share the common tools and resources broadly when they're in place.
March Events
Annual Provider Engagement Survey
For the past 3 years, we've measured our provider engagement using the Net Promoter Score, a simple survey that evaluates how you feel about UCSF as a place to work and receive care. This formal evaluation has helped bring critical insight and dialogue from our providers about the necessary efforts to improve your experience. Please take a few minutes to complete this year's survey.
Patient Safety Awareness Week
UCSF Health will be celebrating Patient Safety Awareness Week with a number of activities that we hope you'll have the opportunity to experience. Please see the flyer for full details of the week's festivities. Nationally, this year's awareness week is to focus on patient engagement and safety culture, both priorities within our organization.
National Doctors' Day
Did you know? National Doctors' Day is celebrated to recognize physicians, their work and their contributions to society. In the US, the idea came from Eudora Brown Almond, wife of Dr. Charles B. Almond, who wanted a day to honor physicians; the first reported observance was in 1933. The date was chosen to commemorate the first use of general anesthesia in surgery on March 30, 1842. In 1990, National Doctors' Day was designated by Congress and President Bush as a national holiday. At UCSF Health, we will recognize our wonderful physician workforce on March 29th to avoid conflict with the March 30th campus holiday in honor of Cesar Chavez Day.
Future Events
*Please refer to the flyer for more information and the required poster template  for submissions