Clinical Services support the hands-on delivery of care by fostering collaboration, leveraging systemness, collecting and analyzing patient care data and leading patient safety initiatives.

The office of the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) provides leadership in all areas of clinical service, directs system-wide quality, facilitates clinical performance improvement, directs patient safety initiatives, develops best practices in managed care and assists in improving the performance of employed physician practices.

The office of the Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) provides leadership for the achievement of nursing excellence throughout the continuum of care, anticipating and adapting to changes in the health care environment.

The Physician Leadership Council includes chief medical officers at each RHC and CHE’s lead hospitalist. This council focuses improving the quality, safety, effectiveness and efficiency of patient care and enhancing RHC-physician relationships. Along with the Patient Care Executive Council, they serve as principal conduits for clinical perspectives throughout CHE.

The Chief Quality Officer Council provides strategic direction for CHE in the areas of quality of care and patient safety. They are also responsible for facilitating system wide communication on those topics.

The primary role of the department of quality services is to initiate and direct various processes to achieve continuous improvement in the quality of care and service provided by the RHC/CCs to their local communities. This is accomplished by providing corporate support and defining expectations in the following five major areas:

• Universal clinical indicator data collection, reporting, analysis and performance improvement strategy development
• Patient/resident safety performance improvement and medical error reduction
• Patient/resident satisfaction assessment and action planning
• Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations educational programming, standards interpretation, policy compliance, and pre-, during and post-survey readiness

Clinical transformation is a comprehensive, ongoing approach to health care delivery that enhances patient health, safety, care and service; increases efficiency; eliminates duplication; decreases the number of repetitive tests and procedures; and reduces costs. Through this transformation, the hospital will be equipped with the best tools to provide the right care to the right patient in the right setting at the right time.

In an effort to accomplish our goal of efficient, compassionate, person-centered care, CHE is embarking on a system-wide clinical transformation initiative called CareLink. Read more about the CareLink initiative.