The Clinical Operations team at The Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality is focused on ensuring and supporting the safest and highest quality of care throughout Johns Hopkins Medicine. The team focuses on continuous improvement and defining the future of quality and safety.
A distinguishing characteristic keeping Johns Hopkins at the forefront of patient safety is the successful translation of research into operations and practice to continuously improve patient care.
Our Priorities
-
Achieve Clinical Excellence
-
Provide Outstanding Experiences
-
Eliminate Preventable Harm
-
Improve Healthcare Efficiency and Value
Commit to Transparency
Each day in a hospital, staff members undertake complicated tasks caring for patients. Johns Hopkins Medicine's patient safety efforts aim to deliver high-quality, compassionate care to all patients across our health system. These efforts, which are tracked and shared publicly, cover patient experience, infection prevention, delivery and newborn care, surgical volumes, quality of care ratings, and pediatrics.
Lead Research and Improvement Projects
The Armstrong Institute is best known for its extensive work in the inpatient setting to reduce Hospital-Acquired Conditions (HACs), including central line associated blood stream infections, ventilator-associated events, surgical site infections, venous thromboembolism, delirium, muscular atrophy, diagnostic error, and patient loss of dignity. Publications by AI researchers are among the most highly cited papers in the field, led by the New England Journal paper on decreasing catheter-related blood stream infections, with over 4100 citations.
Ongoing work includes antibiotic stewardship in hospitals, primary care and nursing homes, early recovery after surgery, and peer assistance for second victims of error (traumatized providers after an error or stressful patient-related event). Over the last few years, Armstrong Institute has expanded into new areas of research, including blood pressure control in primary care, errors in transitions to home health, patient-centeredness, and OB-GYN care. We are viewed by our peer institutions one of the pre-eminent patient safety research entities in the world.
Provide Training and Consultation
Throughout our consultations and courses, we work with like-minded organizations that share the Armstrong Institute’s vision of a health care system that harms less, wastes less and consistently provides high-quality, respectful care.
We strive to expand patient safety and high-quality health care at home and around the globe. Our virtual workshops allow individuals or groups to work together while participants gain insights for embedding health care improvement efforts into their organizations. They head home with a deeper understanding of the structures, strategies and resources needed to take patient safety and quality.