Clinically Integrated Outcomes Strategy for Quality and Safety White Paper

Quality and safety are fundamental goals in all global healthcare systems from both a patient and provider perspective. However, performance of North American healthcare systems remain far behind other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. Patient safety is a particular challenge, despite more than two decades of research and safety initiatives to define and address the challenge. Medical error, a core element of patient safety, has now become the third leading cause of death in North America, behind heart disease and cancer.

So how can health systems solve this, ultimately, preventable issue in our global healthcare systems?

HIMSS is proposing a new strategy for addressing the seemingly intractable challenge of patient safety and the growing rates of preventable deaths and injuries associated with adverse events in healthcare systems. Reframing the challenge of patient safety in healthcare systems from one focused on types and rates of error, toward one that strengthens the digital infrastructure in clinical care environments that are able to proactively identify risks. In turn, this enables clinicians to take preventive measures to reduce risk and strengthen quality of care that may ultimately eliminate medical errors in health systems.   

Healthcare systems can develop strategies to help address the challenges of patient safety by examining the following:

• The occurrence of adverse events in healthcare across global jurisdictions
• Lessons from other sectors such as grocery, retail, banking and automotive to demonstrate the ability to track and trace people, processes and products
• The challenge of patient safety and reframing the issue from one focused on types and rates of error, to one that examines health system environments that measure the risk of error proactively and enables intervention, ensuring the delivery of safe care
• The value proposition of restructuring clinical environments for health sector stakeholders
• Transforming clinical environments to adopt highly transparent supply chain tools and strategies, creating safe and effective environments for patients and practitioners
• The need for standardization, leadership, and policies to support highly effective healthcare systems

The HIMSS Clinically Integrated Supply Outcomes Model (CISOM), offers providers a prescriptive standard and strategic path forward to advance and support personalized care delivery models and health system quality and safety improvements. The model assists organizations in creating a high-performing, clinically integrated supply chain infrastructure, to create visibility and transparency of data that tracks care processes linked to patient outcomes, scaled across health system environments.

Ultimately, transforming clinical settings to adopt highly visible supply chain infrastructure will create environments for patients and practitioners that are safe and effective, and that make it nearly impossible for adverse events to take place.

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