Quality First

Executive Summary: Quality First

In every encounter with every patient at Adventist Health Simi Valley, our focus is on achieving the highest level of clinical quality and safety. Our standards for clinical quality flow from the evidence-based best practices of medical facilities nationwide. These best-practice guidelines are designed to minimize variation in our clinical processes and improve outcomes for our patients.

As part of Adventist Health, we participate in a variety of quality initiatives, such as:

• CMS Core Measures—A system of tracking and reporting our implementation of actions that have been proven to assure better patient outcomes for specific diagnoses, such as acute myocardial infarction (heart attack), heart failure, community-acquired pneumonia and surgical care.
• Emergency Department Collaborative—An effort to improve patient flow, patient satisfaction and quality of care in our Emergency Department.
• Pressure Ulcer Campaign—A program that reduces the incidence of pressure ulcers-breakdown of the skin that occurs when a person remains in a stationary position for an extended amount of time.
• Hand Hygiene—An initiative to increase awareness among staff, physicians, patients and visitors regarding the importance of hand washing and the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers to reduce the spread of disease.
• Culture of Safety—A project that measures and reports our clinical staff's attitudes toward safety in seven key areas, which helps us identify potential issues and improve our patient safety efforts.

Adventist Health Simi Valley has been recognized for our safety and quality efforts, including our three-year accreditation by The Joint Commission in 2010.