Puget Sound Health Alliance
The Washington Puget Sound Health Alliance (PSHA) is made up of community members (employers, physicians, hospitals, consumers and health plans) working toward a shared goal of improving the quality and costs of health care in their area. While the organization is focused on the Puget Sound area - King, Kitsap, Pierce, Snohomish and Thurston counties in Washington- this collaborative group is viewed as a regional model.
Community Checkup Report
Medical and technical experts throughout the region worked together with the Alliance to develop the Community Checkup Report, providing a foundation for improving health care quality and affordability.
Washington health care cost and quality
programs
Regence and Boeing recognize and support the health care quality and efficiency initiatives of employers, physicians, hospitals, patients, health plans, and others in the Washington community.
In support of never events
“Never events” are events that should never happen in a hospital setting. According to the National Quality Forum (NQF), never events are errors in medical care that are clearly identifiable, preventable, serious in their consequences for patients and indicate a significant problem in the safety and credibility of a health care facility.
The Washington Hospital Association and Washington Medical Association, under a voluntary agreement with medical facilities, physicians and other health care professionals, have pledged their commitment to stop billing patients for egregious medical errors. This initial step acknowledges and works to eliminate never events in the medical community.
Regence BlueShield supports this agreement to reduce and ultimately eliminate unnecessary medical errors. We will be working to implement our own initiatives in the coming months to actively support this movement.
The complete article on never events appears in the May 2008 issue of The ConnectionSM.
Washington State Hospital Association
The Washington State Hospital Association (WSHA) and its member hospitals provide consumers with information to help them make decisions about health care. This information allows consumers to make informed decisions about where they choose to seek care. In addition, WSHA assists policy makers and the public measure the cost and quality of hospital care. Information on hospital pricing and quality and answers to commonly asked questions about hospital bills can be found on the WSHA Web site.
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