This is recognized as an excellent way to connect frontline staff with the
Quality and Patient Safety department – not only as a way to provide
education about safety concerns from the viewpoint of the caregivers,
but also to demonstrate the organization’s commitment to creating a
culture of safety.
The overall goals of patient safety rounds are to:
• Ensure that a systematic process is in place for identifying,
prioritizing, and implementing solutions to patient safety opportunities
• Provide opportunities for identifying, reporting, and resolving issues
contributing to near misses and adverse events
• Foster transparency and a just culture by encouraging staff to discuss
patient safety concerns and events
The process is an informal one and focuses on patient safety-related
topics. All staff working in the area are encouraged to participate in
the discussion, and all comments are confidential. Discussions are
documented only for purposes of identifying issues and are focused on
the system or area, not on the individual, so neither names nor identifiers
are documented. For FY2017, over 1,000 staff members were interviewed.
A few examples of what we have learned and actions taken:
CONCERN
ACTIONS TAKEN
Safety belts for gait training Safety belts have been ordered
Dual grab bars needed at scales to prevent
patient falls Grab bars are currently being installed in
all clinics
IV access attempted several times on hard-
to-stick patient Escalation process developed
Experiencing difficulty in measuring weight
of patients who cannot stand on scales Wheelchair-accessible scales have been
ordered
Lack of tools to help decrease falls in high-
risk patients Chair alarms made available on units
Need handheld shower heads to safely
shower patients and prevent falls Handheld shower heads are being evaluated
for installation
With healthcare systems on a never-ending journey toward quality
improvement, UAB created an electronic database for ambulatory
clinics and inpatient units to display their quality and performance
improvement projects. The Quality and Performance Improvement
Project database is located in the Research Electronic Data Capture
System (REDCap).
Each month, Quality and Patient Safety coordinators visit inpatient units
and ambulatory clinics across UAB Medicine to conduct patient safety
rounds, asking frontline staff if they have any patient safety concerns.
QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE
IMPROVEMENT PROJECT DATABASE
Through utilization of the Quality and Performance Improvement
database, ambulatory and inpatient teams facing process hurdles can
query the database to identify prior projects on similar issues. The
sharing of project successes and failures cultivates a collaborative
approach for overcoming mutual challenges. The database encourages
synergy and accountability, reduces redundancy, and eliminates silos.
Shared ideas, information, and best practices promote quality and
performance improvement.
QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS
PER CATEGORY
PROJECT
PATIENT SAFETY ROUNDS
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
NUMBER OF PROJECTS PER CATEGORY
n Improved Patient Experience n Improved Throughput n Cost Reduction
n Patient Safety n Reduced Variation in Treatment n Infection Prevention
n Timelines of Care n Improved Employee Experience n Revenue Enhancement
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