HSS Quality & Patient Safety

Exceptional Outcomes. Transparent Practices. Uncompromising Safety.

At HSS, we believe the best outcomes come from a culture of safety, compassion and innovation. We are committed to every patient receiving world-class quality care, delivered safely and reliably by dedicated staff who uphold the highest standards of clinical excellence in musculoskeletal care. 

By advancing innovation and research, we are continuously learning and improving on the care we provide to our patients. This helps ensure the consistent delivery of safe, effective and timely interventions that meets or exceeds our patients’ expectations. 

At HSS, we measure what matters to our patients and we aim to achieve the best quality outcomes. Our goal is “zero harm”: eliminating all preventable harm. 

Commitment to Excellence

Quality Care and Patient Experience is one of the foundational pillars of HSS. We define this as delivering the highest value musculoskeletal care and evidence-based medicine with a best-in-class patient experience that prioritizes safety and unmatched outcomes. This means:

• Consistent Standards Across Sites: Patients can expect the same exceptional care, no matter which HSS location they visit.
• High Value Care Model: We deliver the best outcomes at the greatest value for patients and payors.
• Connecting Discovery to Treatment: Innovation moves seamlessly from research to bedside to improve patient care.
• Unparalleled Experience: Every interaction is designed to provide patients with compassionate, personalized, and safe care.

HSS Quality and Patient Safety Goals

• Surgical site infections: Maintain focus on evolving practices and innovations that sustain low infection rates. Learn more about our commitment to preventing Infections in adult and pediatric patients.
• Patient safety and adverse events: Lead best practices to eliminate all preventable harm.
• Readmissions within 30 days following elective joint replacement: Integrate innovation into care following a procedure.
• Patient-reported pain and physical function following elective joint replacement surgery: Ensure the patient perspective is represented as we seek to understand and improve pain and physical function after joint replacement.
• Health variations management: Improve any care differences in partnership with our employees, patients, and communities.

Our Metrics

There is no single method for measuring quality that experts have agreed upon. That means it can be difficult for patients to compare hospitals, since different ones may use different measurements, while others may not measure at all.

So, with the aim of creating a better system of measurement to quantify hospital quality, HSS developed the Five Factors of Reliability. These factors are based in part on feedback from patients, caregivers, and family members as well as our own research into what matters most.

We track and publicly share these metrics with the goal of helping patients make informed care decisions. The Five Factors of Reliability include the following:

• Surgical Success 
• Patient Experience
• Complications
• Avoidable Hospital Visits
• Procedure Volume

Hospital Reliability Scorecards

The Hospital Reliability Scorecard is a tool designed to help you understand how well a hospital performs a given procedure. It follows the Five Factors of Reliability to help you learn what outcomes data to ask for and why each one matters to your health.

Explore our Hospitlal Reliability Scorecards for specific surgical procedures: