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Annual Reports on Quality

Tenth Annual Report on Quality

Introduction

I am extremely proud to be involved with this tenth edition of Crozer-Keystone Health System’s (CKHS) Annual Report on Quality. This publication’s ten-year anniversary represents not just a milestone in time, but a significant milestone in the health system’s ongoing commitment to quality. CKHS has been involved in the quality movement in health care for quite some time, recognizing the importance of these issues long before they became part of a national conversation. In fact, the very first edition of the CKHS Annual Report on Quality predated the 1999 Institute of Medicine report To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System, which is often viewed as the call to action for making patient care safer.

Crozer-Keystone’s longstanding commitment to quality and patient safety was the major factor in my decision to join the health system one year ago as vice president of Quality and Patient Safety. I could tell right away that the CKHS leadership and board of directors take these two areas quite seriously. It was apparent that they believe that hospitals and health care systems cannot be satisfied with the status quo if they want to be truly successful.

I see quality and patient safety as two sides of the same coin: they are intimately and vitally intertwined and cannot be separated. Both concepts are relatively new in health care today, but in reality they have been fundamental in the history of medicine and nursing. Recall Hippocrates’ famous words, “First, do no harm,” or Florence Nightingale’s statement, “It may seem a strange principle to enunciate as the very first requirement in a Hospital that it should do the sick no harm.” Perhaps we have come full circle and are now being reminded of such admonitions from previous generations.

I believe that the highest level of quality cannot be achieved without a relentless commitment to preventing patient harm in what is admittedly a high-risk and complex environment. My new colleagues at CKHS share this belief, and together we are building a culture of safety. Collaboration and openness are the foundation for success in all of the CKHS projects you will read about in this 10th Annual Report on Quality, including our efforts to eradicate hospital-acquired infections (Section 2) and ensure we are providing evidence-based care (Section 3).

Please note that both the shortened version of the Annual Report on Quality and the full-length version can be found on the CKHS Web site at www.crozer.org. I welcome you to read the full report online if you desire more information about our quality initiatives.

As vice president of Quality and Patient Safety, my own goal is to make it a matter of public knowledge that when people are treated at a CKHS hospital or other facility, they are getting the safest, highest quality care in the Delaware Valley. This report is an important indicator of that commitment.

Eric Dobkin, MD, FACS, FCCM
Vice President, Quality and Patient Safety
Crozer-Keystone Health System

Eric Dobkin, MD, FACS, FCCM, vice president of Quality and Patient Safety, is a critical care surgeon with years of clinical and administrative experience. Most recently, he served as the director of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit and senior associate director of Surgical Critical Care at Hartford Hospital in Hartford, CT. He also served as associate professor of General Clinical Surgery for the University of Connecticut Integrated General Surgery Residency. Dobkin was involved with several projects aimed at developing innovative strategies for improving patient safety and the quality of care in critical care. In addition to his duties as vice president, Dr. Dobkin is credentialed in the Department of Surgery at Crozer-Chester Medical Center.