Patient Safety Network

The Coalition sponsors the Patient Safety Network, a group of professionals committed to improving the safety of patients in our healthcare system.

How can the Patient Safety Network help you?

  • Build collegial relationships within a wide circle of health-care focused settings:
    • Health care organizations
    • Health plans
    • Government agencies
    • List-serve of participants
  • Share organizational experiences:
    • Best Practices
    • Lessons learned—what’s worked/what has not
    • Tools and strategies
    • Policies
    • Educational resources/references
  • Discuss and Develop approaches for addressing new standards and regulations:
    • JCAHO-National Patient Safety Goals
    • LeapFrog/NQF
  • Create opportunity for open discussion and idea-generation and try out solutions:
    • Address barriers
    • Set priorities
    • Develop workable solutions
    • Potentially establish an area wide ‘standard of care’
    • Identify pilot sites for initiatives
  • Notify when there are…
    • Updates and new regulations/standards/requirements
    • Educational offerings

What we are…

  • Leading Patient Safety in Washington
  • Sharing best practices to implement in the region
  • Improving patient outcomes
  • Advancing implementation of patient safety goals
  • Collaborating on meeting regulatory requirements
  • Supporting staff performance
  • Standardizing measures of compliance
  • Identifying ways to leverage resources
  • Improving the depth of patient safety efforts
  • Collectively assessing available tools and resources to enhance patient safety
  • Passionate about quality
  • Focused on patient safety
  • Transparent
  • Patient-focused
  • Working together toward common goals
  • Partners

What we are not…

  • Just another meeting
  • Duplicative with other organizations/ societies (i.e. WA Risk Mgt.)
  • Just limited to case reviews/RCA
  • A “Show & Tell” arena
  • Focused on Risk Management or Quality Improvement
  • A Political Action Group (we do not define political policy)

Contacts

For more information about the Patient Safety Network, to suggest a topic for an upcoming gathering, or to host a meeting, please contact one of the following:

Save the Dates!

Please join us this year for our Patient Safety Network meetings, from 11:30am – 1:30 pm [locations tbd]

  • February 3: Patient identification in the ambulatory care settings: challenges and methods. Continuous process improvement tools: what are being used, and how?

  • May 3: Tracking and closing the information loop on test results (normals, abnormals, critical values, imaging, etc.) and referrals.

    Please feel free to bring tools and resources to share, and your questions!

    RSVP to msmith@qualityhealth.org for this event by May 1.

  • July 27: Patient adherence to medication and medical regimens.

  • November 2

    • Patient Safety Pearls

    Here are a few Patient Safety Pearls from the November 4, 2011 Patient Safety Network meeting…
    Root Cause Analysis:
    • Organizations use a variety of processes and timelines, including the following:
      • Attendance at and scheduling of RCA meetings:
        • Attendance is required of all RCA team members, via communication from Administrative Team.
        • While not required, there is a strong message that attendance is expected.
        • Some organizations conduct the RCA after the event is determined to be reportable (namely, to the Washington State Department of Health), while others do the opposite (conduct RCA first).
        • Early morning or late afternoon meetings may be more convenient for physicians.
      • Process and timeline:
        • Example 1: series of meetings – one each week for three weeks:
          • Meeting 1: fact-finding and timeline of event; clarify and assign homework to team members.
          • Meeting 2: review fishbone diagram, determine root cause(s), and pick what can be changed.
          • Meeting 3: develop action plan.
        • Example 2: conduct individual interviews of those involved; include this information into RCA documentation for meetings.
        • Example 3: identify staff who are doing the right thing and interview: “As a system, what are we missing?”
    • Tools: the Quantros tool can be used as a repository from RCAs for future knowledge.

     

    Do you have RCA tools, processes, or pearls of your own to share?
    Please let us know.

    Participant Quotes

    Here’s what participants are saying about the Patient Safety Network:

    “The discussion was comprehensive and educational.”

    “Helpful to hear what approaches are being utilized to promote/create a culture of safety.”

    “It will enable me to educate other members of our staff on new patient safety directives.”

    “I wear many different ‘hats’ for my agency (not a hospital) so it keeps me current, plugged-in re: patient safety issues/events.”

    “Great opportunity to hear of the great work being done to advance patient safety. This was my first chance to make this meeting – we will be back!”