Question

Check the Internet to find information about "safety culture." Examine a few Web sites related to a safety culture in health care. What are the requirements for establishing a safety culture in healthcare?

Discuss the components of a safety culture at your current or previous place of employment. Are all the safety components present? Explain how several components were implemented? How would you, as a leader, implement one of the missing components? Do you believe that a culture of safety will improve the reporting of errors? Why or why not? What can we learn from reported errors?

Answer 1

Introduction:

The concept of safety culture originated outside health care, in studies of high reliable organization, organizations that consistently minimize adverse events despite carrying out intrinsically complex and hazardous work. High reliability organizations maintain a commitment to safety at all levels, from frontline providers to managers and executives. This commitment establishes a "culture of safety" that encompasses these key features:

• acknowledgment of the high-risk nature of an organization's activities and the determination to achieve consistently safe operations
• a blame-free environment where individuals are able to report errors or near misses without fear of reprimand or punishment
• encouragement of collaboration across ranks and disciplines to seek solutions to patient safety problems
• organizational commitment of resources to address safety concerns

Improving the culture of safety within health care is an essential component of preventing or reducing errors and improving overall health care quality. Studies have documented considerable variation in perceptions of safety culture across organizations and job description. In prior surveys, nurses have consistently complained of the lack of a blame-free environment, and providers at all levels have noted probloems with organitional commitment establishing a culture of safety. The underlying reasons for the underdeveloped health care safety culture are complex, with poor teamwork and commuction, a "culture of low expectation," and authority gradients all playing a role.

6 Elements of a True Patient Safety Culture:

Healthcare organizations across the country have significantly ramped up the focus on patient safety and quality improvement, and for good reason. Under the healthcare reform law, healthcare providers' reimbursements will be linked to the quality of healthcare services, including patients' experiences, starting in 2013. A slew of efforts federal demonstration projects, provider-payor collaborations and provider-level pilot projects, to name a few are cropping up, as the healthcare industry prepares for this shift in healthcare payment and delivery.
Amid all these efforts, healthcare organizations must maintain a fundamental aspect of patient safety and quality improvement patient safety culture. Matthew Lambert, MD, senior vice president at the healthcare consulting firm Kaufman Hall and vice chair of the board of directors at Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth; Alex Vandiver and Coleen Smith, RN, of The Joint Commission's Center for Transforming Healthcare, discuss the six aspects of maintaining a patient safety culture.

1. Patient safety culture starts at the top.
2. Patient safety culture is driven by a vision.
3. Patient safety culture involves everyone at every level.
4. Patient safety culture requires some evolution.
5. Commitment to patient safety culture is consistent.
6. Patient safety culture ultimately transcends the leadership.