Patient safety briefings generate interest in SHN community
Daily briefings help raise patient safety awareness
Wednesday March 12, 2008 -- Jason Thompson
Margaret Meier says staff at the South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA) in Moncton is unanimous in their support of daily patient safety briefings as a method of increasing patient safety awareness.

The idea has also caught the attention of other organizations, adds Meier, the patient safety projects co-ordinator at SERHA.

Every morning, staff members gather for 10 minutes to discuss the topic brought forth the day before and to determine a new topic to watch out for and discuss at the next briefing.

Although staff was initially unsure of what they should be talking about during the briefings, Meier says it wasn’t long before staff started suggesting their own patient safety topics for discussion.

“Their issues are being heard, being addressed and staff feels valued,” Meier says. “Every unit thinks it’s a good idea.”

Meier’s goal is to promote the use of patient safety briefings in each of SERHA’s clinical units by the end of the year.

The patient safety briefings have been such a success that other organizations have contacted Meier about replicating the program. She says most of the requests for information she receives are through an online community of practice facilitated by the Safer Healthcare Now (SHN) campaign.

Meier isn’t surprised by the interest generated in patient safety briefings, saying people were interested but no one knew where to start.

She found herself in a similar situation in November 2006 when patient safety culture surveys conducted at SERHA indicated a need to improve patient safety awareness in the organization.

After hearing about patient safety briefings, Meier visited the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s website for more information. She also inquired in the community of practice to find out who else was working on patient safety briefings.

This has resulted in several responses and requests for information from other organizations.

For healthcare professionals interested in implementing patient safety briefings in their own organizations, Meier suggests visiting the Institute for Healthcare Improvement website at www.ihi.com as a starting point.

More information on the patient safety briefings at SERHA can be accessed by clicking here.

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