September 2018
Welcome to our True North e-newsletter, which is designed to provide our physicians and AHPs a better vehicle to share information about UCSF Health improvement activities, upcoming events, and perhaps other objectives based on your continued feedback .
What is “True North” and why is it important?
True North  pillars represent our long-term objectives –  what we need to accomplish to achieve our vision -  because they serve as a constant guide for aligning and prioritizing our work. The UCSF Health True North pillars should not surprise you. In fact, we hope the areas of patient experience, quality and safety, our people, financial strength, strategic growth and learning health system reflect active improvement efforts you’ve participated in or have observed in your practice settings. The True North pillars are also important since they serve as a communication vehicle and common language to link our daily work to what's important in allowing us to continually become better versions of ourselves.
How are we doing with our True North metrics?
Please review our  current   True North scorecard that continues to serve as one lens into our organizational priorities and performance. This month's communication focuses on our final FY18 performance and our recent USN adult hospital rankings.
What are the overall takeaways from our final scorecard of 2017-18?
We have many wonderful areas for celebration, such as improvements in our patient experience and reduction in our harm events, which occurred in spite of record growth in our ambulatory and inpatient volumes. We also have continued areas for improvement, including with our sepsis and mortality outcomes, along with metrics focused on our people (e.g., Gallup engagement and net promoter scores). Next month, we will provide a formal executive summary for 2017-18, which will try to share examples of programs and innovations behind our True North metrics that better reflect the people and teams that made the difference.
How do our recently released U.S. News Adult Hospital Rankings relate to our True North metrics?
By now, you've heard the news about our #6 ranking overall and #1 in California with ten of our specialties ranked in the top 10; it's certainly cause for celebration and recognition of the care we provide. We've developed an executive summary of our rankings and the methodology behind them if you're interested to learn more. As the methodology continues to shift away from reputation and towards more data-driven metrics, our True North focus on improving mortality, readmissions, length of stay, and patient experience also help influence the growing number of external ranking bodies that evaluate the care we provide.
News and Announcements
Do you prescribe controlled substances? Are you registered on the CURES website?
The mandate to consult CURES prior to prescribing schedule II-IV controlled substances will become effective October 2, 2018. As previously mentioned, UCSF Health was already working on a system-wide solution that we will share more about soon. If you prescribe schedule II-IV controlled substances in your practice or at discharge from the hospital setting, this is a good time to assure your CURES registration is active on their website . More to come but please visit the Medical Board's website for additional information on the mandate, including a recently published FAQ .
Quality & Safety Educational Resource: AHRQ PSNet & WebM&M
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) sponsors Patient Safety Network (PSNet), an online resource developed at UCSF that highlights the latest patient safety literature, news, and Patient Safety Primers . The resource also offers learning modules based on cases and expert commentaries as part of Morbidity & Mortality Rounds on the Web (WebM&M), which allows for CME/CEUs as well. It's a fun and practical way to learn about quality and safety topics.
Caring for the Caregiver and Peer Support
UCSF Health continues to invest in supporting our providers who may suffer from the  second victim effect  in caring for patients. In the past year, we have trained more than 100 peer supporters to allow for providers to benefit from this critical and timely resource when they need it most, and by colleagues closest to their work itself (e.g., same clinical division or department). The Caring for the Caregiver team is offering training on October 9th and December 10th ( see flyer ).