President's Perspective – KHA Members Working to Continually Improve Quality and Safety
(Dec. 5, 2025) – As we reflect on 2025, our team wants to recognize the efforts of Kansas Hospital Association members for continuously improving quality and safety at their facilities across the state. This effort extends beyond individual facilities and not only into the regional level through hospital networks and participation in regional improvement initiatives, but statewide through the work of KHA members involved in quality and safety initiatives, KHA's Quality and Safety Committee, and our allied partner, the Kansas Association of Risk and Quality Managers.
During fall district meetings, KHA staff highlighted numerous maternal health initiatives that KHA member hospitals are participating across the state. These include the Kansas Perinatal Quality Collaborative Severe Hypertension in Pregnancy Initiative, Rural Maternal Health Improvement, Rural Maternity and Obstetrics Management Strategies, and KHA/Healthworks OB and Emergency Preparedness Networking Group. By working together to support maternal health, we can continue to improve maternal health outcomes in Kansas.
KHA's Quality and Safety Committee, composed of clinical, quality and risk professionals from KHA members across the state, focused on the top quality and safety priorities they identified this year, including survey readiness, culture of safety and addressing social drivers of health. Many KHA member hospitals participated in Healthworks' Mock Survey Project this year, and we continue to work in partnership with KARQM and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment Facilities and Licensing Bureau on survey readiness.
In collaboration with the Quality and Safety Committee and KARQM, KHA staff are developing tools to support KHA members' efforts to build and sustain a culture of safety. The tools rely on the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's Leading a Culture of Safety: A Blueprint for Success, which provides a framework for health care leaders to develop and foster a culture of safety within their organizations. We appreciate the collaborative effort of the committee and KARQM, as well as the resources that will be created for members. We look forward to expanding this work in 2026 as KHA continues to support our member hospitals' ongoing commitment to providing Kansans with the highest quality and safe care.
Thank you for all that you do!
--Chad Austin