CHA Merges Hospital Quality Initiatives

The California Hospital Association and the state's three other regional hospital lobbies have launched a new organization focused on quality initiatives at acute care facilities.

The Hospital Quality Institute will absorb the various quality improvement efforts currently managed by the Hospital Association of Southern California, the Hospital Council of Northern and Central California and the Hospital Association of San Diego and Imperial Counties. 

The initiatives include the California Hospital Patient Safety Organization, Patient Safety First and the California Hospital Engagement Network.

The institute is based in Sacramento. Its executive director, Julianne Morath, is the former chief quality and patient safety officer for Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn.

Prior to that, Morath served as the chief operating officer at Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota. During that time, Morath was a founder of “Safest America,” a patient safety collaborative in the upper Midwest. 

Little information was available regarding the institute, which was announced on Wednesday afternoon. 

CHA spokesperson Jan Emerson-Shea said in an email that “HQI is still in its formative stages,” and that it's first board meeting was being conducted in Los Angeles.

The institute's website, www.hqinstitute.org, said it would launch later in the second quarter of 2013.