Quality hero saluted
Physician Jacqueline Hobbs recognized as role model for colleagues
Ask most working people what’s the best day of their week and Friday will likely top the list. But Jacqueline Hobbs, M.D., Ph.D., has a special affection for Tuesday.
That’s the day she sends her weekly email blast called “Tuesday’s Tip for Quality and Safety“ to faculty members and others with whom she works in the UF College of Medicine’s department of psychiatry, where she is the physician director of quality, vice chair for education and residency training director.
Such focused attention to quality and safety issues earned Hobbs recognition earlier this year as the 2017 Outstanding Safety Clinical Champion at the Patient Safety and Quality Week Heroes Recognition Dinner.
“To know that people nominated me and see me as someone worthy of receiving this award is humbling,” she said. “I’ve had residents and fellows tell me I set a great example for them. I am not perfect, but I strive to continue to be an example for others.”
Hobbs, who has been at UF since 2005, is also an outpatient clinician specializing in women’s mental health and an associate professor of psychiatry.
In addition to providing helpful hints about how to practice medicine safely, “Tuesday’s Tip” encourages staff members to submit patient safety reports, or PSRs, if they witness an occurrence that could potentially harm a patient. Hobbs and her colleagues work to find solutions to those potential safety hazards.
For example, Hobbs and her team created preformulated prescriptions, or order sets, for common agitation medications to prevent doctors from making mistakes when inputting the prescriptions themselves. Hobbs’ “Tuesday’s Tip” provides recipients with systematic directions about how to access the order sets.
“In psychiatry, we have always been about safety,“ she said. “Because we have patients who might attempt suicide, for example, we conduct safety assessments all the time. It has become second nature for me, and I think it needs to be that way for anyone who is in the medical field.”
In another effort to emphasize the importance of safety and quality, Hobbs started the department of psychiatry’s Quality Improvement Day in 2011. Each year, residents work with faculty members on projects pertaining to safety and quality improvement and present their projects during a poster session at the end of Patient Safety and Quality Week.
“When we come up with solutions to ensure patient safety, it’s a no-brainer that we’re winning,” she said. “But when a resident realizes he or she can contribute to the conversation and make a difference, I know I’ve done my job. They don’t have to cure the world; even the smallest ideas can make the biggest impact.”