“I PROMISE” AND PATIENT SAFETY

“I PROMISE” AND PATIENT SAFETY

By Anne M. Meiring
QM DIRECTOR

The “I Promise” campaign encourages each of us to keep quality and patient safety as our top priority and to engage in patient care improvements. As Quality Management director, my own promise is, “I will follow up quickly when I learn of a patient safety or quality concern so that I might prevent patient harm.”

All employees should consider a promise that focuses on patient safety. An example is, “I will enter a Patient Safety Report (PSR) when I see an opportunity for a patient safety improvement.”

CULTURE OF SAFETY

Shands encourages employees and medical staff to report concerns via PSRs so that issues are brought to the forefront. Please support a culture of safety by thanking those who speak up by entering PSRs. Employees need to be aware that if they have concerns about entering a PSR, they can talk with an immediate supervisor or call Quality Management at 352-265-7106.

HOW DO WE USE PSR DATA?

Quality Management creates a quarterly PSR summary to provide feedback to the Patient Safety Quality Evaluation Committee and the Board Quality Committee. Committee members often round in patient care areas to hear more about steps taken to prevent patient harm.

Further review and analysis of PSRs and the discussion of findings with senior leadership allows us to learn from specific events, observe and act upon trends and implement “lessons learned” hospital-wide to ensure consistent improvements. Unit managers and directors can review their own PSR quarterly summary reports, share information about events or trends on their own units and take action to prevent harm to patients.

 SUMMARY OF FOURTH-QUARTER (CALENDAR YEAR) 2010 DATA

Summary of Fourth-Quarter (Calendar Year) 2010 Data

Thank you to all employees and physicians who entered 1,859 PSRs from October through December 2010. What do we do with all that data? A drill-down shows that 46 percent of all PSRs entered were in three main categories described in the table.

The best action to prevent further patient harm is for each of us to make one promise: “I promise to ensure that we deliver exactly the right care, every time for every patient.”

Note: If you want to know more about your unit-specific data, please ask your manager or supervisor to share this information.