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Using Participation in an External Collaborative to Drive Your Patient Safety Program

Patient Safety Quality Monthly, November 8, 2006

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Dear Colleague,

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) annual meeting in December is approaching. As we have for the past three years, The Greeley Company will have a booth in the exhibit hall and I hope to see many of you there.

The reason for mentioning the IHI meeting is because I want to comment on the value of participating in an external collaborative to drive your patient safety program. While the JCAHO patient safety goals and requirements have helped the field move toward a safer hospital environment, focusing your safety program on meeting regulatory requirements will not create a high reliability organization and a true safety culture. You need to find and implement new ideas and practices to achieve that goal. So what are your options?

You can try to do it through internal motivation and benchmarking efforts. While this approach can succeed, it takes a great deal of commitment and sustained focus by the organization. First, it requires the organization's time and capabilities to find the best practices to implement. Second, while it may be easy to get an organization initially excited by new initiatives, it is not so easy to sustain the interest and support of senior leaders who are constantly distracted by the pressures and crises of hospital operations.  Third, as implementation runs into barriers, it takes a substantial organizational culture and internal accountability to stay the course.

For most organizations, participating in an external collaborative can help overcome these issues. First, the collaborative provides the ideas for the best practices to implement and strategies on how to implement them. Second, because of the external commitment made by senior leadership to participate, they are more likely to continue to stay interested. Third, because collaborative often require that you report on your progress, the organization can use this external accountability to stimulate its efforts to achieve its objectives.

There are a number of collaboratives you can choose from. While the IHI is the most visible collaborative, it does require a financial commitment that some organizations may not choose to make. There are also state and local initiatives which can provide similar benefits and often healthcare systems or cooperatives will have collaborative projects.

Whichever group is best for your organization, collaborative participation can be a critical strategy to move your patient safety program forward beyond mere regulatory requirements.

Regards,

Bob Marder, MD
Practice Director, Quality and Patient Safety
The Greeley Company

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