Organizational Framework for a Culture of Safety
Illinois hospitals are engaged in a continuing journey to
provide safe, quality patient care. It is clear from
current events and experience that our good work in this
area must be visible to the communities we serve and our
executives actively involved in leading patient safety
improvements. Advancing a culture of patient safety is met
by facilitating changes both in a hospital’s internal
operations, as well as the external environment. As part of
IHA’s on-going commitment to improve patient safety, the
Patient Safety Steering Committee has developed the
attached document, an "Organizational Framework
for a Culture of Safety" (click
here). The template is our effort to pull
together leadership and safety strategies from
accreditation authorities, government sources, literature
searches, and member insights into a simple reference
guide.
The tool’s purpose is multifaceted. First, it serves as a
modest checklist of key organizational components with
which to gauge your individual hospital’s efforts towards
evolving to a "culture of safety." The complex
and expansive nature of the patient safety issue, from
medication safety to clinical informatics to team skills
building and more, means that each hospital is at a
different stage on its journey to a ‘safety’ culture.
Therefore, the template attempts to broadly outline the
most basic elements of a patient safety framework for
excellence, isolating a core "four" to initially
focus organizational efforts. The bullets following some
categories are not prescriptive but are intended to offer
only examples.
Second, each bolded category represents opportunities and
serves as a guide for further organizational and staff
development. Resources for each area, e.g. leadership,
process redesigns, disclosure policies, etc. are extensive
today and are continually expanding. Hospitals are
encouraged to seek those available through the IHA Patient
Safety web page. Members are also encouraged to identify
resources that IHA could add to be helpful to your internal
efforts.
Third, the template offers a communication vehicle to
convey a hospital’s activities and progress about its
patient safety programs and efforts. In light of recent
media and legislative interest, some patients and
communities are looking for additional information about
safety matters and the tool is intended to help in
addressing those concerns.
Lastly, as an advocacy initiative the IHA Board is asking
member hospitals to formally adopt the template as a
visible demonstration that Illinois hospitals are committed
to advancing a patient safety culture. The objective is for
a high percentage of our membership to participate in
adopting this model to convey both the sense and substance
of the hospital community’s commitment to patient safety.
Staff Contact:
Cathy Grossi: (630)
276-5706
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