Health Care Resilience is Focus of Eleventh Annual Virginia Patient Safety Summit That Has Attracted More Than 1,200 Registrants

February 24, 2022

Presented in Partnership with the Virginia Nurses Association, the Virginia Pharmacists Association, VHHA Shared Services, and the Medical Society of Virginia, the Summit Brings Together Health Care Professionals for Shared Learning and Collaboration

RICHMOND, VA – Today (Thursday, Feb. 24), the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association (VHHA) and the VHHA Center for Healthcare Excellence are hosting the eleventh annual Virginia Patient Safety Summit. This year’s Summit – one of the nation’s premier patient safety and quality conferences – has attracted more than 1,200 attendees from hospitals, health systems, and other care settings, as well as industry experts and thought leaders.

“Resilience: The Cornerstone of Virginia Healthcare” is the theme of this year’s Summit, whose programming will include a review of progress on efforts undertaken in the past year to address staff burnout and well-being due to the extraordinary stress placed on health care systems and frontline professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Summit, which is being held virtually for a second consecutive year in consideration of pandemic safety protocols, will feature remarks and presentations from national health care safety experts. A program brochure, list of program sponsors, and other resources are available online here. Additional program materials, including recordings of Summit sessions, and a video message from Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, will be posted online here in the coming days.

Program welcome remarks will be delivered by Dr. Ray McCue, MBA, of Chesapeake Regional Healthcare and Steve Arner, Carilion Clinic Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer and Chair of the VHHA Board of Directors. Dr. Arjun Srinivasan, FSHEA, Captain in the U.S. Public Health Service, Division of Healthcare Quality Improvement with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a Summit featured speaker. Other program features include:

• A panel discussion on the “Caring for Virginia’s Caregivers” initiative that has been formally endorsed by the VHHA Board of Directors to focus on caregiver well-being;
• Remarks on “Healthcare Disparities: Lessons from COVID-19 and Implications for Ongoing Patient Safety Efforts” by Dr. Joseph Betancourt, MPH, Senior Vice President, Equity and Community Health at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School;
• A presentation on “Conversation and Action to Support Staff Well-Being and Joy in Work: During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic” by Kate Hilton, JD, MTS, with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement;
• A breakout session on “Ten Strategies to Mitigate the Risk of Violence in Healthcare” – this is a focus area for VHHA, which has successfully pursued a state law change to strengthen penalties for those who threaten to harm health care professional and has developed a Workplace Violence Toolkit for its member hospitals and health systems; and
• Additional breakout sessions on care transitions, assessing safety culture, sepsis care, people-focused quality redesign, and wellness interventions.

“Through two grueling years, Virginia hospitals and their teams have shown incredible resilience in the face of a raging pandemic, burnout, staffing and resource challenges, and the emotional toll of witnessing human suffering caused by the coronavirus,” said VHHA President and CEO Sean T. Connaughton. “As we look ahead, it is critical to take concrete steps to address the serious challenges health care providers face. These include strengthening and protecting our workforce and developing new resources to support hospital staff well-being. Focusing on these critical issues during the 2022 Virginia Patient Safety Summit, which brings together hospital teams and subject matter experts, is an important part of that continuing work. And it’s why we are excited to see one of the largest groups we’ve ever had for a VHHA conference come together at this event to collaborate and drive progress.”

As part of the program, the VHHA Center for Healthcare Excellence is also proud to present the “Imagine A Virginia” Senior Leader Quality and Patient Safety award to Nancy Littlefield, Executive Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer at Riverside Health System. The award recognizes Littlefield for her exceptional leadership, including her stewardship of VHHA’s patient experience improvement efforts and her vision to strengthen the involvement of hospital nursing leaders in VHHA initiatives.

The Virginia Patient Safety Summit traces its roots to 2011 when VHHA successfully pursued legislation in the Virginia General Assembly recognizing each Feb. 2 as “Virginia Patient Safety Day.” The Association and its members are dedicated to the mission of enhancing health care quality and patient safety to make Virginia the healthiest state in the nation. Even during the pandemic, Virginia and its hospitals have been recognized for top performance in emergency preparedness, patient safety, and health care quality. Virginia ranked as the top state in the nation for patient safety on the Fall 2021 Leapfrog Group Patient Safety Grade scorecard. Across the Commonwealth, a dozen hospitals were recently named to Healthgrades’ list of America’s 250 Best Hospitals for 2022. And Virginia in recent years has consistently been acknowledged as one of the states best prepared for public health emergencies in leading national scorecards.

The VHHA Center for Healthcare Excellence extends its appreciation to these Summit partners: the Virginia Nurses Association, the Virginia Pharmacists Association, VHHA Shared Services, and the Medical Society of Virginia. VHHA also offers sincere thanks to these valued Summit sponsors: AmeriHealth Caritas (Gold Sponsor), Chesapeake Regional Healthcare (Gold Sponsor), Mary Washington Healthcare (Gold Sponsor), NorthStar Anesthesia (Gold Sponsor), Qualivis (Gold Sponsor), Safe & Reliable Healthcare (Gold Sponsor), Sentara Healthcare (Gold Sponsor), VCU Health (Gold Sponsor), UVA Health (Gold Sponsor), Ballad Health (Silver Sponsor), Carilion Clinic (Silver Sponsor), Centra Health (Silver Sponsor), Inova (Bronze Sponsor), Liberty Language Services (Bronze Sponsor), and Valley Health (Bronze Sponsor).

About VHHA: The Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association is an alliance of 110 hospitals and 25 health delivery systems that develops and advocates for sound health care policy in the Commonwealth. Its mission is to achieve excellence in both health care and health to make Virginia the healthiest state in the nation. Its vision is through collaboration with members and stakeholders, to ensure the sustainability of Virginia’s health care system, transform the delivery of care to promote lower costs and high value across the continuum of care, and to improve health for all Virginians. Connect with VHHA through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

Contact:
Julian Walker
Vice President of Communications
(804) 297-3193 office
(804) 304-7402 mobile
jtwalker@vhha.com