From Zero Harm to Full Alignment: Using Triad Governance to Improve Quality Outcomes

In today’s complex healthcare environment, achieving and sustaining zero harm requires more than clinical protocols—it demands strategic alignment across operational, clinical and quality leadership. This session explores how one health system implemented a triad governance model (CNO, CMO, COO) to drive meaningful improvements in patient safety, achieving zero central line-associated bloodstream infections and advancing key quality metrics across hospitals with varying levels of resources. Through intentional integration of clinical standards, operational workflows and quality monitoring, the triad team fostered a culture of safety with aligned accountability. This model linked safety to systemwide financial goals, staffing strategies and physician engagement, while reducing CMS penalties.

In this session, you will learn how the triad structure supports daily huddles, shared scorecards and rounding practices that reinforce front-line ownership and executive partnership in real time. Session objectives include:

• Defining the triad’s role in setting and sustaining zero harm targets


• Aligning financial, clinical and workforce outcomes through joint accountability


• Building shared tools and governance practices that scale across facility types

Interactive components will include a triad governance mapping activity and a fireside Q&A with executive panelists. You are encouraged to bring your quality challenges to discuss with seasoned C-suite leaders who have operationalized this model with measurable success. This session is ideal for healthcare executives seeking replicable strategies to integrate quality, operations and clinical leadership in a sustainable framework that drives results.