In 2008, the South Carolina Hospital Association (SCHA) invited HSSC to collaborate on Every Patient Counts, a statewide partnership to advance patient safety and quality health care. Under the direction of SCHA Senior Vice President of Quality and Patient Safety Rick Foster, Every Patient Counts has four aims:
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To help hospitals implement a culture of safety.
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To support hospitals in their adoption of evidence-based medicine.
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To prevent adverse events.
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To promote patient-centered care.
Hospitals across the state are engaged in formal programs to achieve quality and safety improvements and to share their results with other hospitals.
Every Patient Counts is an ideal partnership for HSSC, as hospitals play a critical role in accelerating the translation of research from university labs to patient bedsides and physician offices. They also are consumers of the new technologies, drugs, and processes HSSC is creating. The relationship also creates new opportunities for better, safer health care for SCHA member hospitals.
Each year, SCHA and co-sponsors HSSC and PHT Services, Ltd., host a Patient Safety Symposium designed to showcase and promote wider adoption of best practices in patient safety and health care quality. The event features national and state speakers.
The Patient Safety Symposium also recognizes winners of the Lewis Blackman Patient Safety Champion Awards, which were created to recognize individuals who have demonstrated dedication and leadership in advancing the quality and safety of health care for patients across South Carolina. The awards are named in honor of Lewis Wardlaw Blackman, a 15-year-old who died in 2000 after an elective surgical procedure due to preventable medical complications. His mother, Helen Haskell, has provided inspiration for the awards through her efforts to promote patient safety across the state and nation.
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