Nursing

Hospitals should insist on a patient safety focus

Nurse Leader Weekly, February 28, 2003

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Observers agree that to implement and maintain an atmosphere of accountability among staff members, patient safety must be a critical part of your facility's philosophy.

"It is not the people who make the errors, but the processes," says Elise Gropper, RN, PhD, a nurse consultant for Quality Management Resources in Atlanta. "We want to change the processes in order to make them successful."

First, job descriptions and performance appraisals must incorporate the patient safety philosophy, says Jennifer Watson, BS, RHIT, a performance improvement consultant for JDW Resources in Ellicott City, MD. Both documents must include an employee's responsibilities regarding his or her role in the organization's safety plan. Organizations should orient and later reorient new employees on their patient safety philosophy, policies, and procedures.

Hospital leaders should head up other educational efforts, such as including patient safety information in hospital newsletters, on bulletin boards, during inservices, and in other patient safety materials to staff and patients. Videos also promote good discussions, Gropper says. To instill a culture change to drive the patient safety message home, you can't just bring up patient safety on occasion and expect your staff members to change their way of thinking. "You need the training and support," Gropper says. "It takes a lot of time because you are changing a philosophy."

Using reporting as an educational tool

Staff must understand that completing incident and patient notification reports helps managers track injuries and investigate them for potential liability, says Darla Farrell, RN, BS, MBA, FACHE, of Quality Management Consultation Services in Diamond Bar, CA.

If organizations use reporting as an educational tool, staff will more likely report occurrences. Managers should use aggregate data that correlate occurrences by unit, time of day, and shift, to name a few indicators, Farrell says. By breaking down information, such as the total number of falls or medical errors per month, you can find correlations. For example, you might see that a high rate of patient falls is due to poor staffing on a certain shift.

Organizations should praise staff for reporting, but leaders should exercise caution about cash or material incentives, since reporting is a role and a responsibility. You don't want to set up a reward system for doing something that is one's job, says Farrell.

Adapted from: Briefings on Patient Safety, http://www.hcmarketplace.com/Prod.cfm?id=234&S=ENMW.



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