Teamwork, Engagement, and Technology to Improve Safety and Experience
The latest issue of Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare (PSQH) reflects the diversity of efforts needed for safety improvement. From medical simulation to mentoring programs, IV medication safety, fall prevention, human factors engineering, and engaging patients and families as true partners, the issue offers practical advice for improving care delivery.
In the cover story, Ruth Fanning describes how simulation-based activities support efforts to develop characteristics of high reliability in healthcare: collective mindfulness, preoccupation with failure, deference to expertise rather than rank, and a commitment to building resilience. Fanning examines how simulation can be integrated into many aspects of improving delivery across an institution and recommends that we ask for every new project, “Why not simulation?”
In two separate features, authors report on ways to make intravenous infusion safer and more effective. Tim Vanderveen revisits the topic of integration of medication safety technologies and health IT, which he examined in PSQH in 2007. As indicated by his title, “The Vision Becomes Reality,” Vanderveen finds that the industry has made real progress.
Bobbie Carroll reports on a successful pilot program at Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota that connected smart infusion pumps to electronic medical records to enable pre-programming of the pumps. This closed-loop medication safety system is now being implemented in all units at both of Children’s hospitals. In recognition of this project, Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota will receive the Way-Paver Award at the unSUMMIT for Bedside Barcoding later this month.
Jason Wolf, president of The Beryl Institute, recently conducted in-depth interviews with 18 patients and family members for Beryls’ soon-to-be-released report, Voices of Patients and Families: Partners in Improving Patient Experience. In this PSQH feature, Wolf previews the report and finds that “the ability to listen in the moment and act on what is invited or shared” is central to effective care delivery. Healthcare professionals often segment different aspects of this complex work. The experience of patients and family members is where the parts become whole, reflecting the real value of care delivery.
The issue also includes an article that describers mentoring as a partnership with benefits for all, a fall prevention program based on teamwork, design principles for manual safety systems, and much more.