There are approximately 2.6 million points of care in the U.S. — and that number is rapidly growing, as people are increasingly turning to pharmacies, telemedicine, and retail stores as providers of basic healthcare services and vaccinations. (1) As these points of care continue to increase across the nation, there’s a growing need for structures to support the frontline healthcare workers who are delivering the first line of care. It is now more important than ever to equip these healthcare workers with technology tools and clinical checklists to support patient and employee safety and quality of care within increasingly complex healthcare environments.

Ochsner Lafayette General is the largest non-profit regional health system in Acadiana, a vast region encompassing 22 parishes in southern Louisiana. The system has over 4,500 employees within six hospitals, serving the south-central region of the state by aligning with facilities across Acadiana.

Before implementing Performance Health Partner’s enterprise software solution, Ochsner Lafayette General struggled to address the challenge of siloed technology systems. Across their six hospitals, there was a desire to find a solution that could address the unique needs of individual departments, while still promoting a sense of cohesiveness and providing clear data from which to draw insights across the organization.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on health systems, and particularly on the health and wellbeing of healthcare workers on the frontlines of pandemic response efforts. (1) However, it’s not just during a pandemic that organizations need to focus on their employee’s health and wellbeing. Healthcare workers have historically faced high levels of burnout and stress, and it’s time for organizations to step up and begin to address these multi-faceted challenges.

Preventable errors are estimated to cost the U.S. healthcare system approximately $187.5 billion to $250 billion annually. (1) Establishing an effective patient safety framework can decrease preventable errors and improve patient outcomes while reducing costs. In recent years, healthcare organizations have begun placing focus on reforming organizational culture in order to maximize patient safety.

Preventing healthcare-acquired infections (HAIs) is an important goal for any healthcare organization to improve patient safety. A healthcare-acquired infection (HAI) is an infection that a patient contracts while receiving treatment for another medical or surgical condition. (1) 

The term “near miss” or “good catch” is used to describe an event that did not result in patient harm, but could have. Often, near misses happen multiple times before a harmful incident occurs; in fact, many avoidable deaths have a history of related near misses preceding them. (1) Near misses therefore provide valuable opportunities for proactive learning and improvement.