Mission
To foster dialogue and achieve consensus among interested member health care organizations of the Health Council in development of a culture of safety for patients, their families and employees.
Vision
The Health Council Patient Safety Workgroup is comprised of interested member health care organization representatives, and staff from GCHC. We believe that the efforts put forth will be recognized as providing innovative collaboration in the achievement of a culture of safety for patients, families and employees.
Culture of Safety
Sustainable improvement in patient safety requires change in the culture of health care organizations. Keystones of an evolving “safety culture” include:
- Flexibility
- Recognition of the inevitability of human error
- Effective error reporting system
- Commitment to a just response to error
- Dedication to broad learning from error
- Senior leadership consistently demonstrating commitment to safety
Process
To achieve this “culture of safety” we will:
- Be proactive in reducing medical/health care incidents by sharing best practices in patient safety and sharing effective preventative measures for adverse events, which includes but is not limited to JCAHO safety goals
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Integrate patient safety practices into the design and redesign of all relevant health care processes, functions and services
- Recognize and acknowledge risks to patient safety and medical/health care incidents
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Focus on process and systems
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Foster a non-punitive approach for involvement in medical/health care incidents
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Effect behavioral changes in individual institutions, through organizational learning and confidential sharing of medical/health care incidents.
Adapted from James Reason, Robert Helmerich, Ashleigh Merritt and others
Co Chairs: Robert Waymeyer, St. Elizabeth Medical Center; Cathy Rosenbaum, TriHealth
Staff: Margaret Shank