VPQHC urges lawmakers to build quality measures into S126, outlines suicide-prevention and pediatric psychiatry supports

Hillary Wolfley, executive director of the Vermont Program for Quality in Health Care (VPQHC), told a legislative committee on April 25 that quality should be explicit in any statewide health‑care redesign and that VPQHC stands ready to help shape S126’s measurement and safety provisions.

VPQHC wants a formal role in the bill’s advisory structures and funding to participate. "Picture this like a three‑legged stool," Wolfley said, urging legislators to weigh access, cost and quality together when evaluating reforms.

VPQHC, designated by the Vermont legislature as an independent, non‑regulatory peer‑review organization, described three programs it said are relevant to S126: a statutory patient‑safety surveillance and improvement system, an emergency‑department suicide‑prevention quality‑improvement initiative, and a pediatric/perinatal psychiatry consultation line that supports primary care.

The patient‑safety program, operated under contract with the Department of Health, collects adverse event data from hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers and helps facilities conduct causal analyses. "Analyses of patient safety work product should not be admissible, for example, into the court of law," said Morgan Bedard, a quality…