OhioHealth Foundation

Gratitude Stories

A Patient Safety Fund

Solving Problems With Good Ideas

Rebecca deVillers, DO, family practice physician at OhioHealth Doctors Hospital, was inspired to create the Quality and Patient Safety Fund from hearing so many good ideas from her colleagues who want to solve problems and make improvements in patient care.

“Often, someone will have a good idea — a really good idea — but there are no resources to pilot it,” says Dr. deVillers. She decided to fuel proactive, outside-the-box thinking around quality and patient safety by establishing a fund that would provide those resources to residents, physicians and other professionals at Doctors Hospital. The fund allows them to test and tweak new ideas — and one day launch a great new program.

For example, a resident may have an idea for patient education that could improve quality of care. Or a physician might suggest an innovation to promote safe transitions in care.

As Dr. deVillers points out, there may be funding opportunities for medical research, but it is much more challenging to find resources for outcome management and quality specialists.

Why Doctors Hospital? It’s the place Dr. deVillers finds her “medical family.” Not only is she a medical staff member at Doctors, but two of her children were born there. “It’s always been my home.”

And, thanks to her new fund, Doctors Hospital will also be the home of great innovations in quality and patient safety.