Patient Safety Focus

Interview with Adam Aronson, developer of HVA (Hospital Video Auditing)

Adam Aronson, CEO of Arrowsight Inc., developer of Hospital Video Auditing (HVA), discusses what inspired him to develop solutions to dramatically improve patient safety and preventable medical errors, what HVA offers and the striking results it's providing.

Q: What prompted you to develop and market HVA?

A: "The short answer is that Arrowsight works to improve practices, performance and compliance in many safety-sensitive industries, such as food processing, food services and manufacturing...so improving the healthcare industry, especially with the very basic, but altogether critical area of hand hygiene compliance, was a natural next step.

But the longer answer hits much closer to home.

First, my father, Dr. Mark Aronson (pictured up top on the right with Adam), has been in healthcare for several decades. While watching hospitals grapple with the issues and growing fatalities associated with Hospital-Acquired Infections (HAIs), he watched me develop my video auditing business and made the connection that the technology and services we offered to improve safety for food processing were all too apt for healthcare facilities.

Due to being focused on growing my company across many sectors, I knew it would only be a matter of time before we developed a practice area in the medical sector. But that timing was placed on a fast-track after both my mother and my sister developed HAIs in separate top-notch hospitals due to what should have been short hospital stays for them both.

My mother, after a car accident which shattered her ankle acquired a preventable infection and one surgery turned into several, along with a permanent limp.  In the same year, my sister, after having her baby, and preparing to be released in a few days with a new bundle of joy, developed Scarlet Fever. Both cases were preventable--and both cases could have been potentially prevented with the assistance that HVA offers hospitals. Now that technology and service is available to all hospitals."

IHI Offers 2-Day Program for Hospital Leadership and Board Members

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) announced a two-day seminar designed for leaders who hold ultimate responsibility for quality and patient safety.

According to the Program Overview:

Led by national experts in governance and quality—James Conway, MS, James Reinertsen, MD, and James Orlikoff—it will provide practical tools on topics board members and senior leaders are committed to in principle yet often unable to put into action.

Leaders responsible for driving quality and patient safety endeavors should consider attending, including both hospital leadership—CEO, CMO, CNO and COO—and any board members interested in quality improvement.

Ideal for forward-thinking organizations that already have quality as a prominent focal point and could benefit from further hands-on guidance, the program’s agenda includes:

• What the best boards do and how they do it
• Action planning for your own board
• The board meeting: approving the annual quality plan
• How the best boards manage conversations — with each other and with physicians
• The power of patient and family engagement
• Sentinel event meeting: dealing with a quality crisis

To learn more and enroll, click here.