This valentines month, I’m highlighting our Cardiac Care Outcomes Assessment Program that improves the quality of cardiac care across the state (and a bit beyond). Cardiac COAP believes that health care is best guided by physicians; that health care quality is best measured by analyzing clinical data from a medical record; and that health care…

Practice Makes Progress I grew up with the idea that practice makes perfect. So insidious, this idea that anything can be perfect. How would anyone know when they have arrived at perfect?   My daughter’s elementary school works with the idea that practice makes progress. I am grateful that she is enmeshed in this framework. Progress...

The Foundation for Health Care Quality has long been home for collaboration across health care sectors and between competing organizations. Effective January 1, 2025, we will be taking over for OneHealthPort as Lead Organization for Administrative Simplification in Washington State. In 2000, “Admin Simp” was created by the Washington Healthcare Forum to make it easier...

A This American Life episode from 2021 outlines the idea of a "spark bird;" the singular species (or experience) that hooks someone on birding. My wife is a birder and it is a hobby for which I am glad she has other people to talk to, but this metaphor sticks with me and I think...

The end of summer, the start of the school year, the leaves are starting to turn colors, and we are getting ready for our 21st annual Northwest Patient Safety Conference on October 15-16, 2024. Presented by Washington Patient Safety Coalition, Health Quality British Columbia, and Oregon Patient Safety Commission, our conference includes 14-hour long sessions,...

Aside from being an excellent song from the excellent Florence and the Machine, the dog days of summer has its origins in public health. I had always believed this referred to a time in August in ancient Rome (always on my mind) when malaria was omnipresent due to mosquitoes in the lower swampy areas and...

We are moving! Our new address is 400 University, Floor 300, Seattle, WA 98101 within the Industrious coworking space. We have had a mostly virtual office for some time and this move acknowledges that and the preference our staff has for a hybrid workstyle. Working to maintain our culture of collaboration has been a primary...

Congratulations to Kaiser Permanente Washington and UnitedHealthcare, winners of the Foundation for Health Care Quality’s first annual Mountain Climber Award for Excellence in Equity awards. Our Bree Collaborative awards system is part of our state-wide evaluation of whether and how Bree guidelines have been implemented into practice. Following our region’s love of the outdoors, we...

Our Obstetrical Care Outcomes Assessment Program (OB COAP) has received a 1.3-million-dollar grant from Ballmer Group to create an unprecedented maternal data registry integrating clinical data from the electronic health record with patient survey information. We know that a birthing person’s experience, opinions and feelings of safety can be as important as clinical outcomes and...

I am looking forward to joining those of you who have signed up for our March 19th Cognitive Interviewing Workshop at the SEATAC Conference Center. Cognitive Interviewing is a novel and systematic approach to adverse event investigations that improves recall of accurate and reliable information from an interviewee. This can greatly enhance adverse event investigations....