‘Fostering culture of safety’ key in creating patient-safe environment: risk manager
Tuesday September 25, 2007 -- Natalie Miller
Having safety embedded in the hospital’s culture and a strong leadership team are two key elements in creating a safer healthcare experience for patients, a risk manager says.

Rouge Valley Health System says best practices in patient safety such as good communication, teamwork, and a non-blaming environment are elements the hospital is learning from organizations such as the Canadian Institute for Health Information and through Safer Healthcare Now. These elements “need to be cascaded to all healthcare providers.”

“We believe that fostering a culture of safety is essential in creating a patient-safe environment,” says Shirley Atkinson, manager of quality and risk management at Rouge Valley Health System.

“Commitment and involvement of leadership are keys in creating a culture of safety. We need to talk about safety among ourselves and bring nurses, physicians and other healthcare providers into the centre of the discussion,” she says.  

She says information needs to be filtered through the organization and discussed on the frontlines.

“They can help us to flag problem areas and identify potential areas for improvement because they are the ones who are working every day with complex systems and processes that can lead to medical errors,” she says.

“Fostering a culture of safety will help healthcare providers feel safe to report and discuss errors openly so that we can learn from each other and make improvements.   Healthcare providers can provide us with valuable input into improving systems and processes which will create a patient-safe environment. Leadership support and the will to make change are essential.”

Rouge Valley has a variety of safety initiatives in place currently, ranging from management walkarounds on the frontlines on a regular basis to the formation of a multidisciplinary falls prevention task force, among many others.

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