Monthly Newsletter - July 2020 Edition
Special Message from Stephan Schwarzwaelder, VP of Quality

Dear colleagues,
 
In early May 2020, I started serving in the role of VP for Quality for UHA. I am privileged to work with a diverse group of dedicated individuals to provide excellent patient care to our patients. I want to take this opportunity to introduce myself further to you and share with you our joint priorities for the next months.
 
I started my professional life as a RN in an Emergency Department in a small rural hospital in Germany. In this role, I developed an interest in organizational culture and work designs and their impact on the well-being and happiness of individuals. I changed my major from medicine to psychology and studied organizational psychology to better understand and support a place where people feel safe and are happy to work. In the last 25 years, I have worked in different roles in Healthcare Administration in Germany and the US. Working in Quality, providing excellent patient care and supporting each other, is what I love to do.
 
2020 has been a challenging year. I want to thank all of you for the tremendous care you have provided (and continue to provide) to our patients and the support you have given each other. I was very inspired by the comradery I experienced between us. Thank you! At this point, I want to inspire us to continue this journey together towards excellence in Population Health. We have only 2 months left in our current fiscal year and we want to finish it strongly together for our patients. As we are reopening clinics, our patients will be happy to hear from you. Your care gap report can help you reaching out to your patients and we can also help you to create your report. Reach out to us anytime.
 
Every patient, every time  is our vision for Population Health. Contact us if you would like to go over your Team Based Care 3.0 workflows . Our culture is defined by what we do and achieve together. The Quality Team is here for you. If you have question, we are happy to meet with you.
 
  • For questions regarding our Team Based Care workflows or how you can run your care gap report in Epic, please reach out to Lalitha Chirravuri.
  • For questions regarding your individual quality scores, please reach out to Katherine Liu.
  • For questions regarding Annual Wellness Visits, please reach out to Anna Carley.
  • For question regarding COVID-19 and Patient Safety, please reach out to  Megan Jenest, RN
 
Sincerely,


Stephan Schwarzwaelder
Vice President, Quality

Quality Measure Performance Update 
The 2020 quality goals have been constructed such that each provider has a target for each of the 11 measures based on their performance during the benchmark period. 

Click here for more detail.


Clean Hands Save Lives  
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought new attention to the importance of hand hygiene. But, did you know one of greatest examples of the importance of Hand Hygiene took place during the Crimean War? In 1854 while working as a nurse, Florence Nightingale recognized a correlation between disease transmission and hand hygiene. She understood that a lack of diligent hand hygiene practices caused an increase in disease transmission. As a result, Florence instituted diligent hand hygiene practices throughout her hospital, which aided in the reduction of the hospital's mortality rate from over 40% down to 2% in just 6 months (National Women's History Museum, 2019).

Today the WHO, CDC and health care organizations throughout the world recognize Hand Hygiene as an important driver of Quality Care and infection prevention. Diligent Hand Hygiene with soap and water or alcohol based hand rubs are necessary to prevent the spread of infection.

Please take a moment to review UHA's Hand Hygiene Policy. Managers are strongly encouraged to perform Hand Hygiene audits of staff on a monthly basis. 

Medication Recalls
On June 1, 2020 the FDA issued an important nationwide medication recall on Amneal Pharmaceuticals Metformin Hydrochloride Extended Release Tablets, USP, 500 mg and 750 mg. Seven lots are effected. 



Produced by the UHA Communications Department. Send comments to uha_communications@stanfordhealthcare.org.

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