Healthcare Forward

The Healthcare Forward campaign is consistent with our mission and focus as we support and promote safety across the care continuum. Together, we will all move HealthcareForward. We invite you to engage in the conversation further on social media and watch for additional content to support the #HealthcareForward campaign!

Patient Safety is important to all healthcare providers—there should be no preventable harm to patients. Three major components drive patient safety forward:

1. COMMUNICATION. Open communication brings all members of the healthcare team, including patients and their families/caregivers, together to ensure that the plan of care is patient-centric, safe and reliable. Utilizing the right communication tools allows the healthcare leaders and individuals to convey information in an accurate and timely way, encouraging questions and concerns. Engaging the patient and their support system integrates them with the safety team and leads to better outcomes.
2. ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE. The culture of any healthcare organization is vital to promoting patient safety. Culture is the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterize an organization. It’s driven by leadership mindset and methods. A healthy culture promotes the reporting of incidents, near misses and unsafe conditions without fear of a punitive response. It generates frank and open discussion of these events. Organizations with strong cultures quickly identify weaknesses in their processes and are adept and positioned to rapidly implement successful changes.
3. LEADERSHIP. Leadership sets the tone that shapes culture by setting the example for others in the organization. Great leaders have a vision and it is conveyed to others through their words and actions. Leaders inspire staff to continually strive for the highest quality of care using safe and effective methods. When leaders make patient safety, communication and learning visible priorities, they motivate staff to share their goal of safe, high quality and reliable healthcare.

Patient safety requires all three components. Leaders set the example by demonstrating values through their actions. Communication during care should be open, shared and verified by other team members as well as patients and their families. Communication about care needs to address concerns at all levels. A strong culture encourages open and non-punitive discussion of incidents, near misses and unsafe conditions. Incorporating these components will put your organization on a path to a safer environment and more sustainable organization.

Download your free copy of the Healthcare Forward eBook to explore these areas and more. 

WHY?
Healthcare providers across the continuum struggle with change as they endeavor to provide high quality, safe, and reliable care. Reimbursement regulations have led to healthcare delivery model changes, while general economic conditions bring mergers and closing of some services. This report looks at the components of high quality, safe, reliable care in the context of topics pertinent to both patient and provider safety.

WHY THESE TOPICS?
The topics come from issues at the forefront of patient safety research and which also appear frequently in the CPS Patient Safety Organization (PSO) dataset.

WHO SHOULD READ THESE TOPICS?
All healthcare professionals across the continuum of care.

HOW TO USE THIS REPORT?
Discuss the questions around each topic and the various scenarios. The questions are intended to promote thought and lead to deeper discussions. Consider building action plans around areas that are not appropriately addressed currently in your organization.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Check out our HealthcareForward podcast on Quality Talk.