At psychiatric hospitals, care quality and patient safety are closely associated with each other, this new CMO says.
Promoting care quality and patient safety are top priorities for the new CMO of Oregon State Hospital (OSH).
Amit Bhavan, MD, became CMO of OSH in April after serving as interim CMO of the psychiatric hospital since August 2025. Prior to joining OSH, Bhavan was an assistant professor of psychiatry at Oregon Health & Science University.
Care quality and patient safety go hand in hand at a psychiatric hospital, according to Bhavan.
“The primary elements for delivering quality care at a psychiatric hospital include helping patients feel they are safe, which involves not only the physical environment but also ensuring that we are providing a safe and therapeutic environment,” Bhavan says.
The main components of patient safety at a psychiatric hospital include physical safety and psychological safety, Bhavan explains.
For physical safety, psychiatric hospitals must be prepared to deal with patients experiencing mental health crises not only as the reason for their admission but also crises that patients experience while they are admitted to a hospital.
“We are focused on helping patients through these crises, which often result in physical contact between patients and staff members,” Bhavan says. “So, we make sure that our staff is trained to safely de-escalate situations where patients are experiencing a crisis. This training includes policies on seclusion and restraint as well as the provision of medications.”
For psychological safety, Bhavan says a primary approach at OSH has been using data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ PIX survey, which is a patient experience survey that helps the hospital understand from the patient perspective what was helpful in their hospital stay.
“We are using PIX survey data to modify hospital operations and policies to improve patient experience and patient psychological safety,” Bhavan says.
To launch and implement quality improvement initiatives at psychiatric hospitals, using Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycles are particularly effective, according to Bhavan.
“At OSH, quality improvement initiatives and projects have 90-day PDCA cycles,” Bhavan says. “With these PDCA cycles, we can go back and see whether a change that was implemented is working and effective. The PDCA cycles also help us determine whether a quality improvement initiative should be modified and re-implemented to achieve the initiative’s goals.”
Harnessing data is crucial in quality improvement initiatives at psychiatric hospitals, Bhavan explains.
“We collect data daily, so we don’t have to wait for a 90-day PDCA cycle to advance quality improvement,” Bhavan says. “That daily data collection is reviewed every morning on status calls as well as incident management meetings. The data includes financial data points as well as quality metrics.”
OSH is also using data as a primary driver in efforts to improve patient safety.
“For us, collecting data supports follow-up on safety incidents by middle management, where frontline caregivers engage with their direct supervisors,” Bhavan says. “We also have all levels of management participating in daily huddles and calls that address patient safety.”
In addition to focusing on patient safety data, senior leaders at the hospital regularly review policies and practices related to patient safety.
“We have internal timelines set for policy reviews to make sure our policies are aligned with industry best practices,” Bhavan says.
Achieving Financial Sustainability at Psychiatric Hospitals
A psychiatric hospital CMO can play a significant role in ensuring that the organization is financially sustainable, according to Bhavan.
“Providing behavioral health services in a way that is financially sustainable comes down to identifying what a patient needs to succeed,” Bhavan says. “At OSH, we tailor psychiatric and behavioral health services to what each patient needs to successfully discharge them from the hospital.”
To boost a psychiatric hospital’s finances, a CMO must focus on length of stay, Bhavan says.
To identify effective strategies for reducing length of stay, Bhavan has learned from members of the Western Psychiatric State Hospital Association, particularly Colorado Mental Health Hospital in Pueblo.
“They have taken a hard look at how patients discharge successfully, with reducing length of stay as a measure of that success,” Bhavan says. “Colorado Mental Health Hospital in Pueblo has embraced a needs-based treatment focus, which is something we have adopted. We are modifying our treatment service delivery model to more appropriately align with what patients need to discharge from the hospital as soon as possible.”