Quality and Patient Safety

At Emerson Health, we use Equity-Informed High Reliability to reduce medical errors, improve patient safety, and work toward achieving zero preventable harm. Each year, we establish measurable patient safety goals that advance this work. These goals focus on three key areas.

1. Enhance the Culture of Safety

Emerson Health requires all leaders to complete Equity-Informed High Reliability education. This essential safety framework helps bridge the gap between human capabilities and complex, high-risk systems. It emphasizes reducing errors through specialized training in decision-making, fatigue management, teamwork, and safety event investigation. Each year, the organization sets goals to strengthen leaders’ understanding and application of high-reliability principles.

Emerson Health also sets annual goals to strengthen safety communication across all staff groups. The organization regularly conducts a Safety Culture Survey to understand staff perceptions better and identify opportunities to improve patient safety.

Patients and their support persons are important partners in Emerson Health’s culture of safety. The Patient Family Advisory Council (PFAC) reviews the annual strategic safety goals and provides valuable feedback. PFAC members also serve on hospital committees, including the Patient Safety Committee and the Quality Council.

2. Address National Performance Goals (NPGs) and Patient Safety Priorities

National Performance Goals (NPGs) focus on high-priority, measurable areas that help hospitals improve patient safety and quality of care. One of these priorities is preventing workplace violence. Each year, Emerson Health establishes goals to strengthen workplace violence prevention and support a safe, healing environment for patients, visitors, and staff. Emerson Health also participates in the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association (MHA) workplace violence data collection.

In addition, Emerson Health sets strategic goals to advance healthcare equity and ensure that every patient has access to the highest-quality, safest, patient-centered care. This work includes improving data collection to support equity analyses and providing education on disability assessment and accommodations across the organization.

3. Monitor and Improve Quality Through the Quality Assessment and Performance Improvement (QAPI) Program

The Quality & Patient Safety Department submits quality data to state and federal regulatory agencies. Using a structured performance improvement approach, Emerson Health analyzes this data to identify opportunities for continuous improvement.

Senior leaders conduct safety walk rounds to learn directly from frontline team members about safety concerns and opportunities for improvement. Information about quality and patient safety is also shared regularly with the Governing Body to support ongoing oversight and accountability.