The CEO Coalition announced that the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and Vocera Communications, Inc. are collaborating to catalyze the work of the Coalition to improve the physical and psychological safety of the nation’s healthcare workforce. The organizations will turn the CEO Coalition’s Heart of Safety: Declaration of Principles into action by identifying, measuring, and sharing evidence-based practices that support the three pillars of safety outlined in the Declaration: emotional and psychological safety, health justice, and physical safety.
“We want to build a future in which every care team member feels protected and safe at work,” said Robert C. Garrett, FACHE, CEO of Hackensack Meridian Health. Garrett, Co-Chair of the CEO Coalition, joined forces with nine other health system leaders from across the country to declare a renewed commitment to improving safety, well-being, and equity for all who work in healthcare.
“We believe success lies in collaboration and invite other health systems to partner with us in this critical work,” said Laura Kaiser, President and CEO of SSM Health, and a Co-Founder of the CEO Coalition. “By leveraging our collective expertise and best practices, we can move much more quickly to improve the safety and well-being of our nation’s healthcare workers. Our caregivers deserve to feel safe.”
The Heart of Safety: Declaration of Principles, authored by the CEO Coalition, expands the definition of safety to include protecting psychological and emotional well-being of team members, promoting health justice by declaring equity and anti-racism core components of safety, and ensuring physical safety, which includes a zero-harm program to eliminate workplace violence, both physical and verbal.
“The well-being of the healthcare workforce, including physical and psychological safety, is essential for delivering high-quality patient care,” said Kedar Mate, MD, President and CEO of IHI. “We look forward to working with the CEO Coalition to drive meaningful improvements in safety across our health systems and to elevate discussions in the industry about how to foster equitable workforce safety.”
These topics and more will be featured in the IHI Patient Safety Congress 2021 taking place May 11-13. The virtual event will bring together healthcare leaders and practitioners who are passionate about ensuring safe, equitable care for all. Attendees can learn more about the CEO Coalition and the Declaration of Principles during a live, interactive discussion from 1-2 p.m. ET, on Tuesday, May 11.
“We are proud to collaborate with IHI and the CEO Coalition to amplify the great work of the co-founders and support the mission to protect the nation’s healthcare workforce,” said Brent Lang, Chairman and CEO of Vocera. “Now is the time to find innovative and sustainable ways to keep our care teams safe from emotional, physical, and psychological harm and to make it clear that health justice is an essential component of safety. We are committed to supporting this group of industry leaders as they turn words into action.”
About the CEO Coalition
The CEO Coalition, co-founded by 10 health system CEOs across the U.S., is on a mission to protect the physical safety, emotional well-being, and just treatment of all who work in healthcare. Focused on the heart of safety, the CEO Coalition published a Declaration of Principles outlining three pillars of change needed to build a future of caring, trust, and health justice. The co-founders of the CEO Coalition have sparked a national movement and are turning the Declaration into an action plan for meaningful and sustainable change.
