Thursday, March 09, 2006
Lets Hear It for Cassy Horack!!
Health care providers under pressure to improve the safety and quality of care often cite the lack of consistent national criteria as a reason for not doing more.
That was the general subject of an article in the March 6, 2006 issue of Modern Healthcare. The first sentence of that article read “The effort to improve healthcare quality appears to be stagnating as the [healthcare] industry continues to sort out the details of how to organize the movement.”
Then a few paragraphs down, Cassy Horack was quoted as having opined that problems at the national level were no excuse and that the desire for self-improvement comes from within. She said, further, “If the literature and the evidence are there, you should be doing it anyway.”
Ms. Horack is director of quality and safety at 593-bed OSF St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria, Illinois.
The rest of the three-page article went on to elaborate on its basic theme, which was what was happening or not happening nationally on the quality front.
But we should all give a little hooray for Cassy Horack, who said what needed to be said. Hospitals have plenty of things that need improvement and most of them are easy to find. They need to get with it and do something about them. Having clear national guidance would be nice, but it isn’t necessary.
Health care providers under pressure to improve the safety and quality of care often cite the lack of consistent national criteria as a reason for not doing more.
That was the general subject of an article in the March 6, 2006 issue of Modern Healthcare. The first sentence of that article read “The effort to improve healthcare quality appears to be stagnating as the [healthcare] industry continues to sort out the details of how to organize the movement.”
Then a few paragraphs down, Cassy Horack was quoted as having opined that problems at the national level were no excuse and that the desire for self-improvement comes from within. She said, further, “If the literature and the evidence are there, you should be doing it anyway.”
Ms. Horack is director of quality and safety at 593-bed OSF St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria, Illinois.
The rest of the three-page article went on to elaborate on its basic theme, which was what was happening or not happening nationally on the quality front.
But we should all give a little hooray for Cassy Horack, who said what needed to be said. Hospitals have plenty of things that need improvement and most of them are easy to find. They need to get with it and do something about them. Having clear national guidance would be nice, but it isn’t necessary.
