2 HEALTH COMPASS FALL 2024 Creating a culture of safety There are several common causes of reliability failures. People may move too quickly, work on autopilot or lack attention to detail. Maybe they don’t communicate well, or they feel uncomfortable speaking up when they see something wrong. They don’t question things. Or they may not know expectations or deliberately choose to work around them. To create a culture of safety, we need to first build trust within our teams. Our work to become a High Reliability Organization By Judy Geiger, Vice President of Patient Care Services, and Christopher Strear, MD, FACEP, Chief Medical Officer Did you know that every year, patients at health care organizations around the world experience harm due to medical errors? That’s not a statistic anyone wants to find out about firsthand. On top of potential risks to patients, did you know that one of the most dangerous places to work is a hospital? Workplace injuries and illnesses at health care organizations occur at nearly twice the rate of other private companies. At Columbia Memorial Hospital, safety has been one of our core CMH CARES values for years. The No. 1 goal in our organization’s five-year strategic plan is to provide the highest-quality, safest care. We focus on safety for our patients and caregivers. At the end of 2023, CMH began working toward becoming a High Reliability Organization (HRO) with our partner, Press Ganey. Becoming an HRO involves learning tools and techniques to provide even greater safety to our patients and reducing how often we are injured on the job. Our ultimate goal is to get to zero harm. Throughout this year, we have held training sessions to teach these skills to every person working at CMH. We have also held workshops to practice the skills and create habits that will sustain a culture of safety. Everyone at CMH plays an important part in making our organization safe for everyone. Becoming an HRO is integral to this value. By working to become an HRO, we are doubling down on its importance. We couldn’t be more excited to share this important work with you and continue moving toward our goal of zero harm. Caregivers need to know and believe that safety is a core value. Everyone’s goal should be zero harm so that all feel empowered to speak up for safety. Staff need tools to help them respectfully escalate concerns. Safety stories should reinforce the importance of and expectations for preventing human error. Those who speak up for safety should be thanked and protected, especially when they are wrong. A fair and just culture should be real and implemented. 1 3 2 4 5 6 Building trust to create a culture of safety
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