How Can We Make a Safer Safety-Net Hospital?

​Systematic implementation of quality improvement best practices led to significant decreases in risk-adjusted mortality and early death in a general surgery population at a safety-net hospital in Philadelphia, according to a study in the March 2017 issue of Surgery. Beginning in 2012, the hospital, which serves an area in which a third of the population lives below the poverty line, began to implement a series of quality improvement strategies and best practices. The initiative included recruitment of general surgery faculty, expansion of its Surviving Sepsis Campaign, implementation of an early warning system, initiation of a 100% mortality review, and six other measures. During the 30-month study period, hospital outcomes improved.