DIRECTORS COMMENTS
Congratulations on a successful Joint Commission survey! Earlier this month, February 4 to be exact, the Joint Commission survey team arrived at our facility to look at all aspects of our health care system and to provide us feedback on how we are doing. They spent a week with us, and many, many of you were active players in making this visit a success. The Joint Commission Team traveled a few of our community based outpatient clinics and met with staff at all levels – administrative and clinical, direct and non-direct patient care staff, supervisors, executive leadership, and frontline staff. In every Joint Commission meeting, I heard from the review team stories of your hospitality, professionalism, and passion for taking care of our Veterans. The Joint Commission also spoke with our Veterans who also shared with the review team their appreciation for the care you give them.
Surveys like this give us a chance to showcase the excellent work you do every day, and give us an opportunity to get even better. Our journey to become a High Reliability Organization (HRO) will drive improvement efforts related to the opportunities identified by the Joint Commission. We will look at mistakes and near misses without blame but with an eye to improve processes. We each have a duty to speak up and a duty to listen. We speak up without blame, and we listen without defensiveness. This is the nature of Just Culture. If becoming an HRO is the road, then Just Culture is the vehicle. Let’s all learn to drive this road together – it’s a road trip!
With this in mind, the Executive Leadership Team is hosting a Just Culture Training Blitz May 4 through May 8. With at least two classes a day, these workshops are designed not just to talk theory of Just Culture but to provide hands on tools for improving a culture of safety within your work groups. The week includes times for those on nontraditional tours, and we are working on the best way to reach our community based clinics. Our goal is to train 90% of our supervisors and 75% of our employees. Help us to reach that goal and register today. The dates and links are in The Wrangler- Keeping you in the know.
Thanks to each and every one of you for what you do every day for our Veterans and each other. I am honored to be part of this team.
~Andrew M. Welch