Quality Quintet

Indeed, all hospital employees, regardless of rank, should be embassadors of quality for the benefit of patients and their families.

In previous posts, I have written about the essential roles of the Board of Directors and the C-suite. Individual roles are important, however, regular communication, teamwork, accountability, and consensus are even more critical to building a top performing organization.

I believe that there is a core group of leaders within a hospital that must share common ground in order for the Quality and Patient Safety strategy to be successful.

I call this core group the Quality Quintet. I recommend its members to be:
- Chief Operating Officer
- Chief Medical Officer (or VPMA)
- Chief Nursing Officer
- Director of Quality (or VP)
- President of Medical Staff

These clinical and administrative leaders must invest their time and energy in learning about the most germane elements of the quality and patient safety hospital agenda. In turn, they must use this knowledge/information to communicate with one another and build trust. The ultimate goal is to etch out a winning strategy that will yield first-rate patient outcomes.

Again, those organizations that are often cited as top performing (i.e. Mayo Clinic, Hackensack University Medical Center, Sutter Auburn Faith Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center, Cincinnati Children's Hospital and Cooley Dickinson Hospital, to name a few) each have a highly functional and supported Quintet that works in sync.

To this end, it is strongly recommended that members of the Quintet meet regularly and seek clarity and consensus.


Some hospitals accomplish this structure via their respective Hospital Quality Committee or Medical Executive Commitee, or Senior Leadership. Others have established a separate work group soley for the purposes of the Quintet. In either case, the objective is to design methods so that both administrative and clinical leadership work in concert.

In synthesis, I challenge those eligible organizations to strive to develop a Quality Quintent, if not already in tact. Successful execution of the Quality and Patient Safety strategy depends on it.