When the Tri-Cities Quality Forum needed someone to speak on the delivery of safe, quality hospital care, it was able to turn to a local healthcare leader who has become a national authority on the issue: Dr. Richard Salluzzo.
Dr. Salluzzo, the president and chief executive officer of Wellmont Health System and founder of the Safest Hospital Alliance, will be the first keynote speaker when the Tri-Cities Quality Forum conference is held on Tuesday, Oct. 16, at Toy F. Reid Eastman Employee Center.
The half-day seminar, which is free this year thanks to a local supporter, offers a wealth of performance improvement experiences that will be shared with listeners. The conference lasts from 8 a.m. to noon.
A double-board-certified physician, Dr. Salluzzo founded the Safest Hospital Alliance in the spring of this year, uniting Wellmont with two other leading national healthcare systems, Novant Health and Adventist Health System, with the goal of making member hospitals the safest for patients in the nation.
An estimated 98,000 hospital deaths occur annually from medical errors. These mistakes carry with them approximately $37.6 billion in additional charges, including $17 billion associated with preventable errors.
Dr. Salluzzo’s plan to institute specific, measurable clinical practices that promote hospital safety has garnered national media attention, ranging from a profile in the Washington Times to a cover story in BusinessTN magazine where he was referred to as “arguably America’s premier advocate for patient safety in hospitals and efforts to reduce medical error.” Modern Healthcare also featured him this year in a cover story, and that magazine recognized him in August as one of the nation’s 100 most powerful people in health care.
Registration for the Tri-Cities Quality Forum is requested by Oct. 14, at this Web site: www.asq1106.org. Other local sponsors for the conference include Eastman Chemical Co., Northeast State Technical Community College and the Northeast Tennessee Section of the American Association for Quality.
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