Symposium stresses role of patient and families to improve patient safety
Wants to build new partnerships between patients and staff
Friday May 16, 2008 -- Camille Jensen
Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) will be holding its annual Patient Safety Symposium in June to build new partnerships between healthcare providers, their patients and families.

While the concept of a partnership between physicians, patients and families may seem like an inherent concept, Teresa Smith, vice-president of quality, patient safety and clinical resource management, says literature on building and forming such bonds hasn’t been created.

“It’s a little bit leading edge,” says Smith. “There is not much in the literature that says ‘OK this is how you go about doing this.'”

HHS, a Healthcare Insurance Reciprocal of Canada (HIROC) subscriber, is hoping to develop new ideas on the issue through events at the conference.

The keynote speakers for the event include Alan Frankel, director of patient safety for Partners Healthcare System and Pat Croskerry, whose work on cognitive error in medicine has made him an advocate for designing safety into the system.

Through the keynote speakers and breakout sessions, Smith says the hospital wants to get staff thinking in new ways.

“We want to get the organization exposed and engaged in thinking about how we’ve got (patients and families) on our team that might help us deliver safer care.”

While the focus is on educating internal staff, the annual patient symposium is also a forum for staff to work with other organizations and partners in the community.

Members from the Community Care Access Centre, Hamilton Health Care, the Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant Local Health Integration Network and other hospital partners will be attending the event.

Murray Martin, CEO of HHS, says the patient safety symposium is part of their organization’s focus on building a culture of patient safety.

At the event a contest is held to see which staff members have created the most innovative safety project at the hospital. The winner is rewarded with a trip to the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, an annual conference in Orlando, Florida.

Martin says the contest is one way the symposium engages staff on patient safety.

“It develops pride and enthusiasm but also allows others to learn from what they’ve done,” says Martin. “It promotes sharing of ideas and sharing of information.”

HHS recently won the government of Ontario’s Dr. William Sibbald Award for Excellence in Patient Safety and will be using the award money to help pay for this year’s symposium.

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