Today at the MUSC Board of Trustees meeting, the 2013 Annual Quality & Safety Report was shared with our trustees. This is YOUR report and it shows another great year in quality and patient safety improvement at MUSC!

This past year, MUSC made tremendous progress in our journey toward the nation's Top 25 status, achieving 16th in the nation in University Health Consortium's (UHC) Quality and Accountability Scorecard. For the second time in six years, MUSC received a UHC Rising Star Award for a tremendous leap forward in quality. This is the result of the tireless efforts of MUSC Health staff and faculty at all levels of the organization.

However, we cannot rest on our laurels! All students of quality and patient safety improvement understand the concept of continuous improvement. Therefore, in order to maintain momentum and progress, our top priorities in the next few years are as follows:

1. High Reliability Organization (HRO) - promulgate the concepts of HRO in all operations throughout the organization (key components of which are having a culture of safety, robust process improvement, and leadership engagement)
2. MUSCare Plans - care standardization for conditions, symptoms, and procedures through the development and implementation of distinct MUSC care delivery plans
3. Transparency (internal and external) of metrics of all types (quality, operational, financial)
4. Teamwork and Communication enhancement in all facets of the organization
5. Just culture - operationalizing the tenets of a Just Culture

In order to achieve these, continued alignment among the Medical Center, MUSC Physicians, the University, and our clinical partners is critical.

This year we will welcome our newest clinical partner, Georgetown Hospital System, into the quality improvement effort. Georgetown brings a different perspective to the quality improvement arena, and we look forward to working with them as we deliver the same level of MUSCare across the entire MUSC Health system.

We would like to thank the senior leaders of all MUSC Health entities for their continued support of the quality mission. Without them, our journey would be impossible to achieve. A special thanks as well to all the service line administrators, medical directors, and strategic partners who have many different tasks, but who have never put quality second. And lastly we express our sincerest gratitude to those areas that continue to give operational support to our quality mission, without whom we could not achieve our goals; Data Analytics, Business Intelligence, Enterprise Data Warehouse, and Medical records (abstractors, coders, and clinical documentation integrity).

We would like to particularly single out Ray Greenberg for special recognition. Ray is leaving MUSC this year and because he has been a tireless advocate for quality and patient safety, he will definitely be missed. He has constantly pushed for statewide collaboration and impact. Our quality improvement efforts in those areas are well chronicled and we owe a debt of gratitude to Ray for his vision and leadership.

Finally, a heartfelt thank you to MUSC Board of Trustees whose continuous dedication to quality sets the standard by which all follow at MUSC.

As you can see from this generous "thank you" list, the quality mission is integrated at all levels of the organization; you all deserve our recognition and gratitude.

Sincerely,

Our Value Proposition

(What we are really good at & different in a way that's meaningful)

We transform expertise, learning and discovery into unrivaled patient-centered care in every setting.