Akron Children's > For Healthcare Professionals > Providers > Continuing Professional Development

Grand Rounds: The Unexpected Catalyst(s): How Crises Accelerated Our Quality and Safety Journey

10-17-2025

By Paul Sharek, MD , Vice President, Chief Quality and Safety Officer, Seattle Children's Hospital

Objectives (Educational Content) :

1. Explore how major crises can accelerate a hospital's quality and safety improvement initiatives.

2. Identify key metrics for measuring quality and safety progress in the wake of institutional crises.

3. Analyze leadership strategies that transform crises into opportunities for safety enhancement.

Target Audience:

General pediatricians, family physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, social workers, psychologists, and nurses.

Identified Gap:

Healthcare professionals, particularly hospital leaders and quality improvement teams, often lack the strategic frameworks and leadership competencies necessary to effectively leverage institutional crises as catalysts for quality and safety improvement. While crises such as pandemics, sentinel events, or system failures can expose vulnerabilities and prompt urgent change, many institutions struggle to translate these moments into sustained improvements due to gaps in knowledge of how crises can be systematically analyzed and used to drive change, competence in identifying and applying key metrics to measure progress post-crises and performance in implementing leadership strategies that foster a resilience and continuous safety enhancement.

Estimated Time to Complete the Educational Activity:

1 hour(s)

Expiration Date for CE/CME Credit:

10-16-2026

Method of Participation in the Learning Process:

The learner will view the presentation, successfully complete a post-test and complete an activity evaluation.

Evaluation Methods:

All learners must successfully complete a post-test, as well as an activity evaluation, to claim CE/CME credit.

Disclosure:

The speaker(s) has returned the disclosure form, indicating that there are no financial relationships with ineligible companies: Paul Sharek, MD, VPH The following CME Committee/Planning Committee member(s) has the following financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose: Merck - Maria Cristina Victorio, MD Moderna, Pfizer and Merck - Shefali Mahesh, MD All financial relationships have been mitigated.

Accreditation Statement:

Akron Children’s Hospital is accredited by the Ohio State Medical Association to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Akron Children’s Hospital designates this enduring material activity for a maximum of 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit TM. Physicians should only claim the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.