Key Quality Initiatives

Partnership with the Studer Group

Studer Group is a nationally recognized company whose mission is to make healthcare a better place for employees to work, physicians to practice medicine and patients to receive care. They coach hospitals by providing a detailed framework and practical how-to's to create a culture of service, clinical, and operational excellence. The Studer Group provides best practices and evidenced based leadership practices gathered from their National Learning Lab of over 750 hospitals throughout the country.

Hand Hygiene

Hospital-acquired infections account for approximately 80,000 deaths in the U.S. each year. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), 7-10% of all hospitalized patients experience a hospital acquired infection. While it may sound simple, basic hand washing is the single most effective method to reduce the spread of common infections, especially in a hospital setting. Unfortunately, AHRQ has found that most hospitals have a poor compliance rate with hand washing—often less than 50%. Southwest Health System has implemented an innovative program that has significantly improved the compliance with hand hygiene standards, most recently reporting a 91% compliance rate.

National Surgical Quality Improvement Program

Southwest Health System is one of only 7 hospitals in Colorado participating in this advance surgical review program, and one of only 12 hospitals between Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona. The NSQIP provides advanced training and tools to identify potential surgical complications that typically go unnoticed or unreported using traditional quality review methods. In most instances, potential problems are identified before they happen. Ask your surgeon about the benefits this program has delivered to them.