Quality & Patient Safety
Our Vision for Quality
At Swedish, we believe patients should have accurate and easy-to-understand information to make the best health care decisions for themselves and their families. It's an integral part of our mission to make a difference in people's lives by improving the health and well-being of each person we serve by providing excellent patient care.
We are honored to provide care for more than 800,000 people both in the hospital setting, as well as in our many specialty and primary care clinics throughout the greater Seattle area.
As your trusted health care provider, we welcome your comments and suggestions. Contact us.
At Swedish, we are continuously working on ways to improve care across our clinics and hospitals. Our quality improvement focus is guided by the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) framework for health care quality.1
Avoiding harm to patients from the care that is intended to help them.
Providing services based on scientific knowledge to all who could benefit and refraining from providing services to those not likely to benefit (avoiding underuse and misuse, respectively).
Providing care that is respectful of and responsive to individual patient preferences, needs, and values and ensuring that patient values guide all clinical decisions.
Reducing waits and sometimes harmful delays for both those who receive and those who give care.
Avoiding waste, including waste of equipment, supplies, ideas and energy.
Providing care that does not vary in quality because of personal characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, geographic location, and socioeconomic status.
In order to continuously learn and improve, we partner with worldwide leaders in health care improvement science such as the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM).
Our doctors and staff work hard every day to make sure patients get the right care every time. One way to measure the quality of care patients receive is through data that allows comparison between Swedish and other health systems.
While there is no universal agreement about which method should be used, the following are often cited as the best indicators to determine whether or not you receive quality care for your medical condition.
The Community Checkup is an annual report that highlights health care quality and value at clinics, hospitals, and medical groups in the state of Washington.
See where Swedish Medical Group and associated clinics earned better scores.
Other data comparison sites include:
Safety is our top priority at Swedish. Our team of caregivers continually strive to make patient care an exceptional experience.
We are committed to a culture of safety in which our caregivers are encouraged to come forward when they or others make mistakes, allowing us the opportunity to improve the care we deliver and prevent potential errors.
Our goal is to provide a quiet, comfortable and clean, healing environment for every patient we serve. We want open communication and want patients and their loved ones to feel comfortable speaking up and asking questions if there is a concern.