To: Chief Executive Officers, Quality Leaders, Public Relations Executives, and Public Policy Executives
From: Beth Zborowski, Director, Communication, bethz@wsha.org, (206) 577-1807
Subject: WSHA’s Updated Quality Transparency Website Launch
Purpose
The purpose of this bulletin is to prepare you for the launch of the Washington State Hospital Association’s quality transparency website on October 15. As a strategic initiative supported by the board, WSHA is breathing new life into the wahospitalquality.org website with a major redesign.
Applicability/Scope
All hospitals in Washington State have quality data displayed on the wahospitalquality.org site.
Recommendation
- Attend the quality transparency website preview web cast on September 30 at noon. Add the web cast to your calendar by clicking here. Connection information is below.
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To join the web cast on September 30
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1. Go to https://wsha.webex.com/wsha/k2/j.php?MTID=t35d8c20fd417389807a64b375a40a0c3
2. Enter your name and email address (or registration ID).
3. Enter the session password: demo910
4. Click “Join Now”.
5. Follow the instructions that appear on your screen.
- Review your data in the context of the new site. Following the September 30 webcast, WSHA will send a link to the beta site to provide members with the opportunity to see how their data looks on new site. The data presented on the new site will be for the same period as is current posted on the current wahospitalquality.org site.
- Prepare for Launch. On October 15, the new site will go live during WSHA’s Annual Meeting using the current website address, www.wahospitalquality.org. This will be a public launch with reporters in attendance and an earned media campaign. Legislators are very interested in health care transparency and the site will be used during the session to highlight our commitment to improvement.
- Showcase your work. Link to the quality website from your hospital’s homepage and consider using the WSHA site to connect site visitors to your own quality work. The new site includes a profile of each hospital with a photo and space for a link to a page on your organization’s website showcasing the work you are doing to improve safety and quality. Please check out your organization’s profile on the site and send a photo and link to your quality webpage to Beth Zborowski.
Overview
From consumers and policy makers to providers, transparency is needed to improve clinical practices and assist with informed decision making. Since 2007, WSHA has published quality data at www.wahospitalquality.org. The number of metrics has grown through the years to the point that the data can be overwhelming to digest.
At the direction of the WSHA board and as part of the 2014 strategic plan, staff from WSHA’s Decision Support, Patient Safety, and Communications teams spent the last six months researching resources, developing content, and preparing data for the new platform. Feedback was received from the Patient Safety Committee, multiple member advisory groups, national patient safety experts, consumer advocates, and public focus groups.
The new site brings together publicly available data in new ways and presents it in a more consumer friendly fashion. What’s more, it will expand to accommodate additional health data, including population health metrics, clinic and physician level information, trend data, and cost information, as it becomes available. Features and functionality will also be added to the site over the coming months and years.
The new site will be easy for the public to use, will create a robust and usable platform for other kinds of health data, will enable visitors to get connected to health information provided by other organizational partners, and will be a positive contribution to health care delivery in our state.
Questions?
For information or to provide feedback on the new web platform, please contact Beth Zborowski, (206) 577-1807.
If you have any questions about the data presented on www.wahospitalquality.org, please contact WSHA’s Executive Director of Decision Support, Jonathan Bennett (206) 577-1851.
