Intermountain CEO Marc Harrison, MD, joined with nine other healthcare CEOs from across the country to declare a renewed commitment to improving safety, well-being, and equity for all who work in healthcare. The 10 CEOs have co-authored a Declaration of Principles that set a new standard of safety for the nation’s healthcare workers.
The CEO Coalition says the COVID-19 pandemic brought new visibility to the selfless acts of courage and the fierce dedication of healthcare team members every day in how they care for patients and their loved ones. The pandemic also amplified the physical and emotional risks team members face, as well as systemic inequities.
“Our nation must take collective action now to protect healthcare workers at every level of the organization and ensure team members have the systems, tools, and resources they need and deserve to feel safe and thrive,” says Tomislav Mihaljevic, MD, CEO of Cleveland Clinic. “A new definition of safety is needed to restore trust, protect the well-being of healthcare workers, and recruit and retain individuals to the healing professions.”
The CEO Coalition’s Declaration of Principles expands the definition of safety to include safeguarding psychological and emotional well-being of team members, promoting health justice by declaring equity and anti-racism as core components of safety, and ensuring physical safety, which includes a zero-harm program to eliminate workplace violence, both physical and verbal.
The co-founders of the CEO Coalition and the co-authors of the Declaration are:
- Susan Ehrlich, MD, MPP, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital
- Robert Garrett, FACHE, Hackensack Meridian Health
- Marc Harrison, MD, Intermountain Healthcare
- Rod Hochman, MD, Providence
- Laura Kaiser, FACHE, SSM Health
- Anne Klibanski, MD, Mass General Brigham
- Wright Lassiter, MHA, Henry Ford Health System
- Tomislav Mihaljevic, MD, Cleveland Clinic
- Johnese Spisso, MPA, UCLA Hospital System
- Andrea Walsh, JD, HealthPartners
For more information, visit CEOCoalition.com.