Institute for Healthcare Improvement

Author's posts

A Guide for Health Systems to Save Lives from “Deaths of Despair” and Improve Community Well-Being

Institute for Healthcare Improvement

This guide provides recommendations and guidance for health care systems to improve mental health and well-being in the communities they serve, focusing specifically on saving lives from deaths of despair (i.e., deaths due to drugs, alcohol, and suicide).

A Guide to Promoting Health Care Workforce Well-Being During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic

Institute for Healthcare Improvement

This guide provides ideas and lessons learned to improve the well-being of the health care workforce and includes actions that individuals, leaders, and organizations can take to combat health care workforce burnout, fatigue, and emotional distress dur…

How to Safely Restart Elective Surgeries After a COVID Spike

Institute for Healthcare Improvement

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected surgical schedules and staff: some staff are fatigued and stressed, some may be out of practice, and there are large backlogs of procedures that were postponed. To keep surgical staff and patients safe during thes…

Organizational Evidence-Based and Promising Practices for Improving Clinician Well-Being

Institute for Healthcare Improvement

This paper describes evidence-based and promising practices shown to increase clinician well-being and reduce burnout across six domains, provides examples, and presents principles of organizational action for clinician well-being derived from the IHI …

The Path to Zero Harm: How to Create a Culture of Safety in the OR

Institute for Healthcare Improvement

In a Oct. 20 webinar hosted by Becker’s Hospital Review and sponsored by Stryker, industry leaders discussed the leadership values and management tools necessary to transform ORs into high-reliability systems. Presenters included IHI’s Jessica Perlo an…

Under the Cover of COVID-19 News, the Epidemic of Opioid Overdoses Silently Surges

Institute for Healthcare Improvement

While the COVID-19 pandemic has drastically altered health systems’ priorities, a parallel public health emergency — the national epidemic of opioid-related morbidity and mortality — has continued unabated, with almost 450,000 opioid overdose-related d…

3 Lessons High-Reliability Organizations Can Teach Us During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Institute for Healthcare Improvement

Dr. Kedar Mate, IHI President and CEO, shares how some health care systems that have previously committed to becoming high-reliability organizations (HROs) have been better equipped to more quickly adapt amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Workforce Safety Key to Patient Safety

Institute for Healthcare Improvement

Health care leaders increasingly recognize that patient safety is not possible without a workforce that is physically and psychologically safe, joyful, and thriving. This article describes three actionable recommendations to improve workforce safety.

100 Million Healthier Lives Health and Well-Being Measurement Approach and Assessment Tools

Institute for Healthcare Improvement

These tools and resources, developed as part of the 100 Million Healthier Lives initiative, help individuals, organizations, and communities measure what matters most to advance health, well-being, and equity at multiple levels and across topics.

100 Million Healthier Lives Advancing Equity Tools

Institute for Healthcare Improvement

These tools and resources, developed as part of the 100 Million Healthier Lives initiative, support communities’ efforts to prioritize equity in an authentic and deep way and address racism as a determinant of health as they work toward achieving impro…