Prioritizing Patient Safety and Quality Care Every Day for Everyone

It’s hard to believe, but this week marks five years since President Trump declared the COVID-19 pandemic a national emergency and related lockdowns across the globe turned the world we knew upside down.

We remember all too well how the surging pandemic changed the way we lived, worked, shopped, educated our children and affected so many other aspects of everyday life.  

We also remember the bravery, courage and heroics that health care teams across the country demonstrated each and every day as they cared for their friends and neighbors during the most challenging conditions.

Former AHA Board Chair Mindy Estes, M.D., who helped lead and inspire the field during the first year of COVID-19, said during that difficult period, “no virus can defeat the human spirit. Because we are stronger than this monumental moment in history, and we are not giving up the fight.”

Her successor, Rod Hochman, M.D., who served as AHA Chair in 2021, has described the performance of hospitals and health systems during the pandemic as the “finest hour” in American health care history.

While the nation’s daily recognitions of our caregivers have stopped, our respect and admiration for all the caregivers who served and continue to serve on the front lines caring for patients and communities will never be forgotten.

The same level of commitment to patient safety and delivering quality care continues today. Every day in every hospital and health system across America, dedicated care teams strive to deliver safe, high-quality care to every patient, continually identifying what drives better outcomes and then implementing changes to improve patient care.

This week, which is Patient Safety Awareness Week, the AHA released a report with Press Ganey showing that patients and the health care workforce report improvements in safety, care quality and resilience.

Some key findings include:

• 13 million patients surveyed after hospital stays report improvements in their overall care experience and perception of safety.
• Surveys of 1.7 million members of the health care workforce show a rebound in their reported experience, resilience and perceptions of safety culture, following the enormous strain of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Alongside improvements in safety culture, patient experience and employee experience, there were improvements in key safety outcomes like falls and infections — across more than 25,000 units in 2,430 hospitals.

The report demonstrates continued positive trends for hospitals and health systems that were outlined in a September 2024 report we released in conjunction with Vizient that showed a decrease in adverse patient safety events along with increasing health care screenings — even as hospitals are caring for more higher acuity patients.

The reports are part of the AHA’s Patient Safety Initiative, which was launched in 2023 to reaffirm hospital and health system leadership and commitment to patient safety. The initiative provides hospitals with tools and data to advance patient safety, offers a platform for sharing their stories of improvement with peers, and highlights examples of innovation that support, spread and sustain safety improvement.

You can see more about these efforts on AHA’s webpage, where among other resources you can view Leading for Safety, a video series hosted by Dr. Estes that explores how health care leaders can drive safer, higher-quality care by fostering a culture of safety and innovation.

Health care is about people caring for other people. While hospitals and health systems continue to make progress on their efforts to advance quality and safety, we know that the journey is far from over. Hospitals and health systems will never stop working to advance patient safety and quality. It has been — and will always be — our field’s top priority.