News

On May 11, WSHA will host a one-day course from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality that emphasizes leadership and change management skills in the context of perioperative enhanced recovery implementation. ... Read More >>

The FDA — along with the Centers of Disease Control & Prevention, representatives from the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) and other endoscope-culturing experts — has developed voluntary standardized protocols for duodenoscope surveillance sampling and culturing. ... Read More >>

We were recently pleased to welcome the following WSHA members who presented at Safe Table events!... Read More >>

Clallam County Public Health Officer Dr. Chris Frank recently authored a column on KevinMD.com on how value-based payments could potentially exacerbate health disparities. Value-based payments reward favorable health outcomes, but often health outcomes are tied to social factors, and Dr. Frank writes that this could make it a disincentive to care for sicker, less wealthy people. ... Read More >>

Harborview Medical Center was highlighted in a NPR article for its work on the early recognition of sepsis using automated alerts. Dr. David Carlbom, a critical care pulmonologist, and the medical director of the sepsis program at the Harborview Medical Center, led the charge to develop a system that pulls information from the electronic health record to flag that a patient may have sepsis. ... Read More >>

If you or a loved one gets sick or injured, do you know the right place to go for care? Would your family and friends know how and when to choose between virtual care, a clinic visit, urgent care and the emergency room (ER)? One of WSHA’s major quality and safety initiatives is ER is for Emergencies, which works to help people seek care at the right location.... Read More >>

The Washington State Department of Health has released a statement about the estimated efficacy of this year’s flu vaccine. Preliminary data estimates the vaccine to be about 36 percent effective in mitigating flu illness. ... Read More >>

This week five members of WSHA’s staff, along with colleagues from Alaska and WSHA member Three Rivers Hospital, traveled to Baltimore to participate in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ annual Quality Conference.... Read More >>

More than 300,000 patients in the United States require mechanical ventilation as a life-saving therapy annually. Complications are not uncommon, as are increased lengths of stay, high health care costs and high likelihood of readmission. ... Read More >>

WSHA has produced a short animated video highlighting the ER is for Emergencies program, which can be helpful this flu season when hospitals are seeing high volumes of patients suffering from the flu.... Read More >>