QUALITY: More Quality Improvements at Providence Medical Center

We wrote recently about Providence Medical Center in Everett, Washington, and itsr innovations in health care quality. Everett now gets a look as one of "10 model communities throughout the USA able to provide top-notch care at relatively low prices" writes USA Today.

Over the past five years or so, the hospital expanded the leadership role of physicians to promote consistency and quality in care delivery, and in trying to address all the things that can go wrong when a patient transitions from one care setting, or care provider, to the next. . USA Today highlighted another one of Providence's quality innovations, shortening length of hospital stay and improving patient satisfaction during and after heart surgery. That involved re-examining care transitions too.

Providence is one of the few U.S. hospitals to create a "single-stay" heart surgery unit so patients remain in one place from the moment they leave the operating room until they're discharged. As patients need less life-support technology, it's simply removed from the room.

"We've had a dramatic increase in patient satisfaction, staff satisfaction and cut the length of a heart surgery stay by 10% to 15%," Providence Medical Center CEO Dave Brooks told USA Today, adding that patients suffer fewer complications and are less likely to need readmission to the hospital.The patient stayed put -- the machinery transitioned.

Disparities in health care costs and outcomes in hospitals across the U.S. provide yet more evidence that our health system is broken and needs to be fixed. Success stories in places like Everett show us that a solution is possible -- we can have high quality, affordable care for everyone.