Press Release

BlueSynergy Launches Innovative new business for healthcare “Working to protect the 33% of patients[1] harmed in America’s hospitals”

West Chester, OH, September 23, 2015:  BlueSynergy Associates, LLC is a newly formed education and advisory firm committed to creating a safer environment in our nation’s hospitals. Working to protect the 33% of patients that are harmed in our hospitals today, BlueSynergy spans the US to educate and advise hospitals on how to begin the sustainable shift to creating a real patient safety environment. Using educational webinars, on-site seminars and innovative advising, BlueSynergy engages in fresh perspectives of process and risk management integration that have not yet been achieved in healthcare.

      BlueSynergy provides an exclusive approach to hospital clients, offering a variety of educational opportunities.  Traditional risk and quality themes are presented from a hospital perspective, allowing better understanding, application and sustainment.  BlueSynergy’s knowledge model is objective-based and designed to allow our professionals to educate and advise from this unique hospital perspective. This personalized approach allows hospitals to better realize their mission and goals. 

      BlueSynergy’s staff of risk and quality professionals has extensive hospital experience from their work as physicians, nurses, pharmacists, engineers, accountants and more.  BlueSynergy aligns with the vision, mission and objectives of DNV-GL Healthcare, a world leader in managing risk.  Through this alignment, BlueSynergy clients receive the edge they need to better manage their accreditation and sustain improvements.

      Eric Schulze, Principal and Senior Advisor at BlueSynergy, states:  “Our people, our methods and our perspective are un-paralleled in the market.  By elevating our message, we create safer hospitals in America.   Hospitals that master the integration of risk and quality will ultimately reduce the cost of healthcare. Capitalizing on innovation, experience and our customers’ perspective, we are able to advise our clients to address the 33% of patients that are harmed in our hospitals.“

 

      BlueSynergy Associates, LLC was founded on the realization that healthcare delivery systems need meaningful and sustainable improvements.  Founded by Eric Schulze and Ted Schmidt in 2015, their vision is to create meaningful change for their healthcare customers so as to reduce risk and thereby provide better care for the communities they serve.               

[1] http://www.amednews.com/article/20110418/  “1 in 3 Patients Harmed During Hospital Stay”

From http://www.iso.org/iso/home/news_index/news_archive/news.htm?refid=Ref2002

by Maria Lazarte on 23 September 2015

"The latest edition of ISO 9001, ISO's flagship quality management systems standard, has just been published. This concludes over three years of revision work by experts from nearly 95 participating and observing countries to bring the standard up to date with modern needs.

With over 1.1 million certificates issued worldwide, ISO 9001 helps organizations demonstrate to customers that they can offer products and services of consistently good quality. It also acts as a tool to streamline their processes and make them more efficient at what they do. Acting ISO Secretary-General Kevin McKinley explains: “ISO 9001 allows organizations to adapt to a changing world. It enhances an organization’s ability to satisfy its customers and provides a coherent foundation for growth and sustained success.”

The 2015 edition features important changes, which Nigel Croft, Chair of the ISO subcommittee that developed and revised the standard, refers to as an “evolutionary rather than a revolutionary” process. “We are just bringing ISO 9001 firmly into the 21st century. The earlier versions of ISO 9001 were quite prescriptive, with many requirements for documented procedures and records. In the 2000 and 2008 editions, we focused more on managing processes, and less on documentation.

“We have now gone a step further, and ISO 9001:2015 is even less prescriptive than its predecessor, focusing instead on performance. We have achieved this by combining the process approach with risk-based thinking, and employing the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle at all levels in the organization.

“Knowing that today’s organizations will have several management standards in place, we have designed the 2015 version to be easily integrated with other management systems. The new version also provides a solid base for sector-quality standards (automotive, aerospace, medical industries, etc.), and takes into account the needs of regulators.”

As the much anticipated standard comes into being, Kevin McKinley concludes, “The world has changed, and this revision was needed to reflect this. Technology is driving increased expectations from customers and businesses. Barriers to trade have dropped due to lower tariffs, but also because of strategic instruments like International Standards. We are seeing a trend towards more complex global supply chains that demand integrated action. So organizations need to perform in new ways, and our quality management standards need to keep up with these expectations. I am confident that the 2015 edition of ISO 9001 can help them achieve this.”

The standard was developed by ISO/TC 176/SC 2, whose secretariat is held by BSI, ISO member for the UK. “This is a very important committee for ISO,” says Kevin, “one that has led the way in terms of global relevance, impact and utilization. I thank the experts for their hard effort.”

ISO 9001:2015 replaces previous editions and certification bodies will have up to three years to migrate certificates to the new version.

ISO 9000, which lays down the concepts and language used throughout the ISO 9000 family of standards, has also been revised and a new edition is available."

Recent articles in healthcare journals reveal a sad truth: hospitals are still not as safe as they should be.  One-article states that one in three patients are harmed during a hospital stay and of this 33%, 7% either die or are permanently harmed.  There has been an emphasis on patient safety for over a decade now, yet we still have continual issues with medication management in our hospitals, wrong site surgery, surgical instruments left in patients, etc. This is not what we envisioned when we chose a career in healthcare.

Most healthcare providers are compassionate professionals who consider their career also as a vocation. We pledge to “First, do no harm”.  And, yet, it seems that after much effort with many smart people working diligently to reduce risk and make our hospitals safer, we still see adverse outcomes.

One would ask, how long can we continue to do the same things and expect different results?  The 2013 study by John James, Ph.D., states, “the true number of premature deaths associated with preventable harm to patients was estimated at more than 400,000 per year”.  This eclipses the Institute of Medicine (IOM) “To Err is Human” study that estimated that same number at 98,000.  That study alone caused a Herculean effort to create a culture of safety to be implemented in our hospitals.  And, yet, a study just 15 years later question the accuracy of the IOM study and states that we have four times the amount of premature deaths than previously thought. When a 2014 Leapfrog study states: “Hospitals struggle to implement NQF (National Quality Forum) endorsed safe practices”, one might wonder if we can really improve. 

We have heard that our profession is “siloed”.  Hospitals around the country, governmental and non-governmental alike, all appear to suffer from this.  Individually, we do a great job in our own silo.  The negative issues manifest when our efforts or our final products do not meet the need of the person or service downstream. 

To illustrate, when asking healthcare professionals their experience with Lean or Six Sigma, there is a positive response.  Many are willing to share their successes.  When asking these same professionals about the sustainability of these efforts, most go quiet.  In some cases, there were unintended consequences that actually caused disruption in another area.  Select individuals accomplish many of these successes.  When the focus changes, or these heroes retire, the success is not sustained.  A success was created by and dependent on heroics.  These heroes made a “people-dependent” process more efficient for a time or temporarily reduced the variation in a process.  This equates to unsustainable improvements.

To fix the broken processes, we need to make those processes repeatable, based on process design, not heroics.  Basic process management (understanding the processes and their sequence and interaction) will enable one to better control and sustain those processes, especially those that require a higher degree of consistency.  When controlling the processes, as a healthcare delivery system, one must include a risk consideration and work to improve consistency in those processes with the greatest risk.

This is a new perspective for some in healthcare.  We are familiar with risk and work hard to manage it, yet we still see adverse outcomes.  However, when hospitals create a risk management framework, a defined organizational structure to manage risks, there are better outcomes.  By creating a risk framework, integrated with our processes, we can produce a safer environment for our patients.  The need for heroics is diminished, since our processes are no longer “people- dependent”.

Unfortunately, these concepts are contrary to how many have operated in hospitals for too long.  By now, as a trusted profession, we should have sustainable processes that produce predictable results, while managing risks. 

Consider an exercise in flow mapping or value stream mapping to gain a good understanding of how our activities work together.  A multidisciplinary team is imperative for meaningful results. Using a simple means to categorize our processes, such as clinical processes (treating the patients), support processes (such as Biomed, Dietary, Lab, etc.) and management processes (planning, providing resources, etc.), we can better understand their sequence and how they might interact with each other.  Incorporating a risk discussion in these mapping activities will identify where risks exist that should be managed. 

There are a few basic risk tools to consider. The most elementary risk tool is a checklist.  We often use them for certain processes or activities. We also use Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEAs). Others that might also prove beneficial are Heat Maps (Risk Maps) and Cause and Effect diagrams.  These simple tools will allow this multidisciplinary team to work through a risky process and create a sustainable change to the process that will manage the risk.

While it is not a difficult process, it is the discipline to make these changes that is difficult.  Many of our contemporaries may not be open to change, so that hurdle must be addressed early.

Can this actually help us reduce that 400,000 number that haunts us?  Certainly it can.  We have been told by several leading authorities (The Joint Commission, Center for Patient Safety, etc.) to benchmark the commercial aviation industry to develop processes with more of a preventive posture.  That will help us to a certain extent.  We have to open our minds to a fresh perspective in our profession.  As healthcare professionals, no one comes to work to fail our patients.  We have to move from the silos we have created and understand how our processes affect other processes, directly and indirectly.

The commercial aviation industry did not change overnight.  It was a major shift in their culture that moved them to a higher reliability.  Everyone in that industry understood.  First Officers no longer held back concerns from Captains and Captains welcomed the feedback.  Because of the high level of risk involved in the activity, they embraced the change.

The greatest gains made in the commercial aviation industry were their desire to work together, to break out of their silos and manage risks together.  They changed their culture and created a safer environment for their customer.    

As W. Edwards Deming, the “Father of Quality” might say, if commercial aviation can do it, why can’t we?