Georgia's Partnership for Health and Accountability (PHA) recognizes patient safety as its top priority and describes the elements that support a culture of safety in health care organizations. Among these are a pervasive commitment to patient safety, open communication, a blame-free environment, and the importance of safety design in preventing future errors. Acknowledging that success in creating a culture of safety requires the commitment of both organizational leadership and front line health care workers, PHA stresses the critical role of physicians and employees in the process. PHA brings the health care field together with agencies and individuals to ensure quality and safety in healthy communities. PHA assists in strengthening collaboration between providers, community members, and other stakeholders by providing education and data-driven tools to facilitate improvement.

The GHA Patient Safety and Quality Summit (PSQS) is one of the association’s largest annual gatherings. The conference features an awards program showcasing the outstanding accomplishments of its members. In addition to the awards program, the PSQS has a reputation for featuring prominent public health officials, nationally renown hospital quality experts and local hospital success stories.

This conference offers Continuing Education Credits to physicians, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, quality professionals, and licensed nursing home administrators.

The 2021 (virtual) PSQS was an amazing success! View the full conference brochure here.

• Nearly 400 registrants
• 52 award submissions
• 5 Circle of Excellence Award winners
• 18 FANTASTIC submissions to the Patient Safety Week Logo Contest

2021 Winning Logo

“Patient Safety is the HEART of Healthcare”

CONGRATULATIONS to all of Quality Award Winners!

The PHA Patient Safety and Quality Awards recognize health care organizations for their achievements in reducing the risk of medical errors and improving patient safety and medical outcomes. Click here for the 2021 award winners.

Communities trust hospitals to provide quality care and education and use them as a resource for health, wellness, prevention and care.

FLEX, the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Program aims to improve access to preventive and emergency health care services for rural populations. Medicare Beneficiary Quality Improvement Project (MBQIP) is an initiative within the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Program funded through the Health Resources and Services Administration's Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) and funded to state to support quality improvement (QI) work withing small rural hospitals.

Hospital Quality Improvement Contract (HQIC) – The Georgia Hospital Association serves as a contractor to Alliant Health Solutions who serves as a Hospital Quality Improvement Contractor to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) within its Network of Quality Improvement and Innovation Contractors.

Hospital Improvement Innovation Network (HIIN) (concluded in March 2020) works with regional, state, national and hospital system level to sustain and accelerate national progress and momentum towards continued harm reduction in the Medicare program, helping to identify solutions already working and disseminate them to other hospitals and providers. 

Small Rural Hospital Improvement Grant Program (SHIP) provides funding to more than 1,600 participating hospitals in 47 participating State Offices of Rural Health (SORH) to help small rural hospitals participate in various Affordable Care Act (ACA) delivery system reforms, such as value-based purchasing programs, accountable care organizations and payment bundling.

Team Strategies & Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety (TeamSTEPPS™) is to establish a systematic approach to all aspects of team training-assessment and readiness, planning, training and implementation, coaching and sustainment of teamwork behaviors. 

GHA Quality and Patient Safety Webinars 
2018-2019 SHIP ED HCAHPS Webinars

Infection Preventionist Resource Book (Login Required)