Patient Safety

Western Health Advantage (WHA) wants you and your family to be safe and healthy. Promotion of safe clinical practices is a critical component of WHA's Quality Improvement Program and those of WHA's contracted medical groups. Here are a few of the things we do to improve your safety:

• Educate members, practitioners and providers regarding safe clinical practices

• Keep track of member complaints about safety problems in their provider's office or hospital

• Look at reports from groups that check hospital safety. Reports tell us about things such as ratings for performance indicators for conditions such as cardiac care and maternity care. Plus information on patient experience and use of computer drug orders.

• Monitor safe use of pharmaceuticals.

Groups that check safety:

• Leap Frog Quality Index ratings (www.leapfroggroup.org)

• California Healthcare Foundation (www.calhospitalcompare.org)

• The Joint Commission National Patient Safety Goal Ratings (www.jointcommission.org)

You can look at these websites to:

• See what hospitals are doing to be safer

• Help you know what to look for when you pick a provider or a hospital

• Get information about programs and services for patients with problems like diabetes and asthma.