5 Leaders Share Patient Safety Strategy and Objectives for 2025

As hospitals continue to face quality and cost pressures in 2025, hospital leaders are prioritizing patient safety objectives to enhance care quality and reduce risks. From readmissions management and CMS Star Ratings to addressing high-cost diagnoses and new structural measures, healthcare quality leaders are striving for a comprehensive patient safety strategy to drive improvements.

That’s what five hospital leaders in quality, compliance, and patient safety shared in recent interviews with American Data Network. While challenges remain, these professionals are moving forward with tools and strategies for quality improvement and patient safety, leveraging multidisciplinary collaboration to achieve results in 2025 and beyond.

Patient Safety Strategy #1: Reducing Readmissions Through Proactive Care

Many quality, safety, and compliance leaders continue to focus on reducing hospital readmissions as a core patient safety objective.

“For us, readmissions is one of the big things we’re focusing on, as well as patient satisfaction,” shares Cara Cruz, BA, RN, CIC, CPHQ, Director of Risk and Quality, Patient Safety Officer, and Infection Control Officer at Carson Valley Health. Cruz calls readmission prevention “a real challenge” requiring a multifaceted patient safety strategy.

At Carson Valley, a comprehensive discharge planning process ensures patients have their medications and post-discharge care within two business days. Monthly focus groups analyze readmitted patients, using risk stratification models to guide outreach:

• Care managers engage low-risk patients.
• Provider clinics focus on high-risk patients based on diagnosis criteria.

This approach has been “hugely, widely successful,” Cruz says.

However, data access remains a barrier. While internal readmissions are trackable, external readmissions—those occurring at unaffiliated hospitals—are often invisible in the system.

At Unity Health in Arkansas, Timothy Copeland, MT (ASCP), MHA, Director of Quality/Risk Management, emphasizes that optimizing discharge efficiency and reducing readmissions are key priorities for their patient safety strategy in 2025.

Patient Safety Strategy #2: Strengthening Quality and Safety Measures

Facilities are also making a push to meet CMS’ expanding group of structural measures surrounding patient safety. That is going to be a major focus at San Luis Valley Health Regional Medical Center in Alamosa, Colorado, says Margaret White, CPHQ, Director of Quality and Safety at the facility.

White notes new structural measures that CMS finalized in the 2025 Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) final rule that begin during the 2025 reporting year, including the Patient Safety Structural Measure (PSSM) and the Age Friendly Structural Measure. Both of the new measures are linked to 2027 payment determinations.

“CMS is finalizing several new hospital quality initiatives, including digital measures for patient harm events, expansion of healthcare-associated infection measures to oncology wards, and structural measures to support safety and age-friendly care,” the agency said. “The new attestation-based structural measures assess whether hospitals demonstrate a structure, culture, and leadership commitment that prioritizes and implements best practices for patient safety and age-friendly care.”

Each of the new measures has five attestation domains. PSSM domains include:

• Domain 1: Leadership Commitment to Eliminating Preventable Harm
• Domain 2: Strategic Planning and Organizational Policy
• Domain 3: Culture of Safety and Learning Health System
• Domain 4: Accountability and Transparency
• Domain 5: Patient and Family Engagement

The Age Friendly Hospital Measure attestation domains cover:

• Domain 1: Eliciting Patient Healthcare Goals
• Domain 2: Responsible Medication Management
• Domain 3: Frailty Screening and Intervention
• Domain 4: Social Vulnerability
• Domain 5: Age-Friendly Care Leadership

In the 2025 IPPS rule, CMS also said it would modify two current measures, with one revision affecting facilities in 2025: The agency is changing the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) Survey measure beginning in the 2025 reporting year (payment determinations in 2027). The revisions to the HCAHPS Survey add three new survey sub-measures, remove one existing survey sub-measure and revise one existing survey sub-measure, according to CMS.

According to White of San Luis Valley Health, while a lot of national groups are providing education about the new measures, finding an organization or third-party that can help hospitals navigate both of the new measures can be a challenge. “I haven’t found a group that’s focusing on both,” White says.

What’s more, the measures – and the work they entail – can further pinch scarce hospital resources. “It’s hard to find the funds to meet the measures,” White adds.

At Cheyenne Regional Medical Center, hospital leaders are taking a proactive approach to navigating the new measures. “We’re meeting monthly to go over every measure,” says Brianna Best Lima, BA, MA, CPHQ, Manager, Data Management at Cheyenne Regional. That focus aligns with Cheyenne’s “ramping up efforts around value-based care and patient safety,” Lima says.

For hospitals looking to assess and improve their patient safety culture, resources such as the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture provide valuable insights into safety perceptions, reporting behaviors, and areas needing attention.

Patient Safety Strategy #3: Achieving Higher CMS Star Ratings

Publicly reported CMS Star Ratings continue to influence hospital performance initiatives, shaping strategic priorities for 2025 and beyond.

Hospitals with a well-established culture of safety in healthcare tend to excel in CMS safety metrics, as they proactively address risks, implement best practices, and engage staff in continuous quality improvement.

“Our focus is related to publicly reported data and patient experience feedback that doesn’t always make it into reports,” says Copeland of Unity Health.

The CMS Star Ratings system evaluates hospitals across five key domains:

• Mortality
• Safety of care
• Readmission rates
• Patient experience
• Timely and effective care

According to CMS data, most hospitals are in the three-star (17.8%) and four-star (16.4%) range, while fewer than 10% achieve five-star status.

For Carson Valley Health, improving their Star Rating is a top priority. “A primary goal in 2025 will be to move into the five-star category,” Cruz.

By refining quality improvement strategies and leveraging proactive patient engagement initiatives, hospitals can improve CMS ratings while also advancing their overall patient safety strategy.

Patient Safety Strategy #4: Managing High-Cost Patient Populations to Improve Outcomes and Reduce Costs

Cheyenne Regional is also working to address the “high-dollar, high-cost patients,” Lima says. That includes focusing on high-cost diagnostic groups, such as those with heart failure and those undergoing chemotherapy.

Hospitals that prioritize high-cost patient populations can see multiple benefits, both in cost containment and patient outcomes. These patients often require frequent hospital visits, specialized treatments, and complex care coordination, which can strain hospital resources if not managed effectively. By identifying and addressing these groups proactively, hospitals can reduce avoidable hospitalizations, optimize resource allocation, and improve overall efficiency.

At Northwell Health in New York, the 21-hospital system has taken steps to stem costs by proactively addressing the “mental health crisis” that has been on the uptick since the COVID-19 pandemic, says Peter Silver, M.D., MBA, Senior Vice President and Chief Quality Officer with Northwell Health. “Hospitals are under increasing financial pressure,” Silver says. Northwell embarked on a multiyear initiative to reduce unnecessary hospitalizations and attendant costs by screening all ambulatory patients for depression.

To date, the health system has successfully screened some 2 million patients, Silver says. Northwell also places a heavy emphasis on disease management for highly prevalent conditions like hypertension and steers patients toward preventive services, such as colonography and mammography, that can identify diseases early and reduce downstream spending.

Focusing on high-cost patient management aligns with value-based care initiatives, which emphasize preventing complications and unnecessary admissions rather than just treating acute episodes. This approach can also enhance patient experience and satisfaction, as better coordination and targeted interventions often lead to fewer disruptions in care and improved quality of life.

By refining strategies for high-cost, high-risk patients, hospitals can balance financial sustainability with improved patient outcomes, reinforcing their overall patient safety strategy while maintaining compliance with performance-based reimbursement models.

Conclusion

In 2025, hospital leaders are embracing a dynamic, multifaceted patient safety strategy to navigate the evolving challenges of healthcare quality. From reducing readmissions and improving CMS Star Ratings to adopting new quality measures and managing high-cost patient populations, hospitals are refining their approaches to drive better outcomes and financial sustainability.

Yet, as Silver at Northwell Health emphasizes, there is no singular focus when it comes to quality and safety efforts. Instead, organizations must continuously adapt, minimize errors, and—most importantly—learn from them. By leveraging proactive strategies, data-driven insights, and collaborative leadership, hospitals can build a stronger, safer healthcare system that prioritizes both patient well-being and long-term success.

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