Saskatchewan Health Authority Team Develops Leading Practice in Harm Reduction
This story has been reproduced with permission from HealthCareCAN. Congratulations to Saskatchewan Health Authority – a HIROC Subscriber – on this achievement.
The Long-Term Care Yorkton team from Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) – a HealthCareCAN member – is being recognized as part of the Recognizing Excellence in Patient Engagement for Patient Safety Program for developing a leading practice that improves patient safety and reduces harm both for residents and staff in their organization.
The leading practice, dubbed “Family Engagement & Co-design in Measuring & Monitoring Safety”, has led to a significant drop in the number of injuries – 42% drop in resident injuries and 69% reduction in staff injuries. It has also resulted in an incredible 83% reduction in the use of antipsychotics (without a diagnosis of psychosis).
“One of the big improvements that we have seen is in how staff think about harm, empowering them to not only identify potential harm but to then take action to ensure safety,” said Danielle Bellamy of the Long-Term Care Yorkton team. “We are proud that the success of this initiative is leading to its implementation in other long-term care homes.”
Led by Ms. Bellamy, Director of Continuing Care South East, in partnership with resident family member Adelle Kopp-McKay, the practice involves engaging with resident family members to challenge the care team to think broadly about harm and safety. This, along with collaborating closely with patients and family representatives helps promote the safe delivery of resident-and-family-centred care while building accountability at an individual, team and organizational level.
“The Saskatchewan Health Authority is working hard to provide a culture of safety that invites patients and families, and expects staff and physicians, to identify and report harmful situations as they are observed,” says Scott Livingstone, CEO for the SHA. “This leading practice work does just that and I am very proud of the accomplishments this team has made to enhance the safety for the residents in long term care in Yorkton. We look forward to sharing and replicating their results in other long-term care homes across the province.”
Members from the Saskatchewan Health Authority team, including a patient partner, have been invited to the 2020 National Health Leadership Conference (NHLC), Canada’s largest gathering of healthcare leaders, held in Edmonton on June 15 and 16, to share their successes, experiences and lessons learned with health leaders across Canada.
About the Recognizing Excellence in Patient Engagement for Patient Safety Program
The Recognizing Excellence in Patient Engagement for Patient Safety Program celebrates and spreads leading practices in patient engagement for patient safety. It was developed in 2018 in partnership by the Canadian Patient Safety Institute (CPSI), HealthCareCAN and Health Standards Organization (HSO) with support from Patients for Patient Safety Canada.