AHA Patient Safety Initiative Convenes Rural Hospital Leaders to Share Trust, Resilience and Leadership Strategies

Rural hospital leaders from across the country came together to share strategies and insights for improving safety culture, governance and care reliability at the American Hospital Association’s Rural Patient Safety Convening in Little Rock, Ark., Oct. 6-8.

At the first in-person gathering of its kind under AHA’s Patient Safety Initiative (PSI), more than 50 participants from Alaska to Maine learned from sessions led by rural hospital leaders and partners about innovative approaches and trusted strategies for tackling common challenges facing rural hospitals. Sessions included:

• EHR-Enabled Safety — West Health and Epic leaders showed how digital tools, like the new maternal health toolkit addressing postpartum hemorrhage as well as telehealth models, can inform other high-risk workflows.
• Infection Prevention and Control in Rural Settings — Front-line teams discussed innovations around infection prevention and data use while facing resource constraints.
• Governing for Safety — Attendees discussed the role of trustees in advancing safety and shared dashboards that could assist.

The event also addressed how rural hospitals can embrace and utilize technology, data and innovation to meet the safety needs of their patient populations and the rural communities they serve.

Presenters discussed:

• Using AI and workflow integration to advance maternal and sepsis safety.
• Utilizing tech-enabled dashboards, National Healthcare Safety Network reporting and telehealth models.
• Embracing simulation and data systems as enablers of reliability, not replacements for leadership and culture.

A highlight of the Little Rock event was the PSI’s Escape Room Simulation, which presented various decision-making and organizational challenges, offering hospital leaders an immersive exercise in communication and teamwork, and showing how simulation can reinforce system learning.

The Rural Patient Safety Convening brought together hospital leaders with varied backgrounds, experiences and areas of expertise, enabling participants to have practical, candid and action-oriented conversations. Attendees were engaged in both small and large group dialogue throughout, and each concluded the convening by naming a priority action item to share with their teams at home, including tools, resources and accessible expertise to strengthen safety culture.

Through the PSI, AHA is committed to bringing hospital leaders together to share strategies for success and opportunities for improvement. AHA looks forward to hosting the Rural Maternal Safety Convening in Omaha, Neb., next month as part of a continued effort to sustain and support patient safety while furthering commitment to trust, resilience and collaboration in rural health.