In the current US economic climate, both patients and hospitals alike are looking for ways to reduce costs, including cutting staff expenses and reducing or eliminating services. So, will the substantial improvements in safety over the last five to seven years become a casualty of the recession?

Quality and safety occupy a prominent place in the strategic plans of many health care organizations. However, a common organizational response to this emphasis on quality and safety is a long list of worthwhile projects and measures that are not well coordinated, let alone capable of achieving system-level results. 

Achieving results at the system or organizational level requires will at all levels, but especially the will of top management to make a new way of working attractive and the status quo uncomfortable. The new system will require new ideas about how work gets done, how relationships are built, and how patients participate in their care. Processes to scan widely within and outside of health care will be needed to find ideas robust enough to form the basis of a new system that performs at unprecedented levels. No single initiative or set of unaligned projects will likely be enough to produce system-level results. (1)

We have provided leadership resources designed to develop sustainable, safe culture of patient care that promotes and embraces team work and accepts only safe, appropriate patient care.

Below you will find links to general resources.  Click here for a quick guide to the entire toolkit.  On the left are links to more detailed resources.

Assessing Hospital Leadership:  The Hospital Leadership Quality Assessment Tool (HLQAT) is a self-assessment tool to help hospitals identify and improve leadership structures and processes that are associated with high performance in clinical quality measures.  Link to HLQAT

Assessing Hospital Safety Culture:  In 2004, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) released the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture, a staff survey designed to help hospitals assess the culture of safety in their institutions. Since then, hundreds of hospitals across the U.S. and internationally have implemented the survey.  In response to requests from hospitals interested in comparing their safety culture survey results to other hospitals, AHRQ funded the development of a comparative database on the survey in 2006. The database is comprised of voluntarily submitted data from U.S. hospitals that administered the survey. Comparative database reports were produced in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010, and will be produced yearly through at least 2012.  Link to AHRQ Survey on Patient Safety Culture

Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) resources: 

• IHI Leadership Resources
• IHI Guide to Patient Safety
• IHI Seven Leverage Points for Leaders

TeamSTEPPS(TM) is an evidence-based teamwork system aimed at optimizing patient outcomes by improving communication and teamwork skills among health care professionals. It includes a comprehensive set of ready-to-use materials and a training curriculum to successfully integrate teamwork principles into any health care system. TeamSTEPPS can provide a powerful solution to improving patient safety and the culture of patient safety in your organization by producing highly effective medical teams that optimize the use of information, people, and resources to achieve the best clinical outcomes for patients.  The Oklahoma Foundation for Medical Quality has five Master Trainers to assist the leadership in facilities engaged in OFMQ Patient Safety Projects complete a readiness assessment and lead your facility through implementation.  TeamSTEPPS can be implemented in stages but requires explicit leadership support to succeed.  Please contact email Elanor Wallis if you are interested in arranging for a TeamSTEPPS trainer to visit your facility.

General Leadership Resources:

• Infection Prevention Regs/Standards/etc.-comprehensive listing (Word) (PDF)
• Facility Risk Assessment
• Infection Control Assessment Tool
• Oklahoma Hospital Standards
• HHS Initiatives
• Infection Prevention Basics (PDF) (PPT)

 

Return to HAI home page