Once again, Fall brings a focus on quality to the SPS News. We hope that you find this issue interesting and useful as you strive to improve the provision of pediatric sedation at your own facility.
Just as your clinical teams work to improve care to patients, our Society also works to improve the quality of service that we provide to our members. I’d like to take this opportunity to update you on quality improvement efforts within the SPS. As you know, the Society is governed by a Board of Directors. What you may not know is that the Board is guided by a strategic plan. Our last strategic plan was created following a moderated retreat involving over two dozen of our leaders in August 2015. We have been successfully guided by the plan devised at that retreat for the past four years.
The Executive Committee of our current board met for a day-long session on July 13th, 2019 to review and update that plan, with the goal of establishing a renewed strategic plan beginning in 2020. As I write this message, the Board is in the midst of a series of three meetings focusing on that updated plan. We hope to have a final approved version by November, to guide us in planning our 2020 budget beginning in January.
The details of the new plan are beyond the scope of this message, but we hope to build on our success by strengthening ties between our Education and Membership committees, in part to better disseminate our newly revised SPS Sedation Provider Course. In addition, as Dr. Landers mentions in her Quality and Safety Committee update, we are hoping to bolster the connection between our Quality and Research Committees, with the goal of using data to better define and compare realms of quality beyond safety, such as the efficiency and effectiveness of the sedation care we deliver.
Finally, I’ll close by thanking our former editor, Trish Scherrer, for years of faithful service to the SPS News. Trish has retired from this position, and Nicole Johnson, a pediatric intensivist (and sedation physician!) at Rainbow Babies and Children, has filled in for this issue. Going forward, Carmen Sulton, a pediatric emergency medicine physician (and sedation physician!) will take over as editor. Thank you, Nicole and Carmen! I look forward to on-going informative issues, with lots of input from our membership. Let us know if you have something to contribute!
