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Quality & Safety

Quality & Safety

Vail Health is committed to quality care and patient safety to assure organizational performance excellence. Quality care and safety initiatives distinguish our hospital and allow us to demonstrate our commitment to specific goals through measurable outcomes. Assuring the highest level of quality and safety is a hospital-wide effort and is transforming the patient care delivery model.
 
Vail Health Hospital is proud to be a part of the Colorado Hospital Association (CHA) Hospital Engagement Network (HEN) for re-admissions. This initiative helps Vail Health Hospital "re-engineer the hospital workflow process and improve inpatient and outpatient safety" through efforts that:
  • Help patients return home as soon as they are able
  • Help patients stay healthy at home after discharge from the hospital
  • Avoid expensive re-admissions
The ultimate goals of the project are to keep patients healthy and to improve both patient and provider satisfaction. 

How We Measure
Quality and safety data as well as patient experience and satisfaction scores are available at the following public websites:

Here's How We Do It

Care Equity

Vail Health is committed to promoting equity in health care for all patients and staff regardless of race, ethnicity, spoken language, sexual or gender identity. We work with our patients and staff to identify and address disparities. Through engagement with community partners, we hope to achieve equity across the continuum of care. Vail Health uses demographic data to elevate care for our diverse population.

Hospital Quality Core Measures

Quality Core Measures make it easier for patients to better understand the quality care they should expect of Vail Health. There are national standards for core measures, all of which are based on scientific evidence and are routinely evaluated by health care experts and researchers.
 

Continuous Improvement at Vail Health

We believe that, no matter how good our services are, we can always improve the patient experience. Our efforts involve ongoing education, along with constant efforts to update and refine our services and processes.
 
Our goal is to give each patient the very best care that is supported by evidence based medicine and current up-to-date technology. We invite you to join us on this journey of continuous improvement by providing feedback through patient satisfaction surveys and comment cards or by filling out an online feedback form. 
 

Joint Commission

Vail Health takes pride in being accredited by The Joint Commission, a nonprofit organization that strives to continuously improve health care for the public. The Joint Commission sets standards for safety and quality-of-care issues, as well as the safety of the environment in which care is provided. 
 

Lean Healthcare

Vail Health observes the Lean Healthcare model, a performance improvement methodology that is focused on eliminating waste and increasing value-added work. Lean processes have been used in other industries for many years, and focus on working smarter not harder and on using the ideas of the people who perform the work (nurses, physicians, unit clerks, housekeepers, office staff, etc.). The positive results of Lean efforts are directly delivered to our customers.
 

Code of Conduct

Vail Health's Code of Conduct provides guidance for hospital employees to ensure that high quality care is delivered in an ethical and legal manner. This obligation extends beyond our patients to affiliated physicians, third-party payors, subcontractors, vendors, consultants and one another as well. In addition, Vail Health's compliance officer provides guidance for employees involved in a difficult or uncertain situation.
 

Hand Hygiene

Hand hygiene is the number one way to prevent the spread of germs and to prevent infections and is a top priority at Vail Health. Cleaning your hands by either washing them with soap and water or by using a hand sanitizing gel, is one of the most effective ways to prevent the spread of diseases and infections. Patients and families are encouraged to speak up and ask health care providers if they washed their hands prior to entering the room or performing any assessments. Patients and visitors should wash their own hands often, including before eating, after using the restroom, and after touching any surface in the hospital room. 

At Vail Health, some employees are trained to watch how well staff keep their hands clean by observing doctors, nurses, and other health care workers to see if they wash their hands or use antibacterial gel before entering or leaving a patient’s room. More than 8,700 hand hygiene observations are monitored each year. This information is shared with hospital staff and leadership. The information is used to help continually improve hand hygiene in our health system so that we can provide the safest and best care to all of our patients.