IT'S PATIENT SAFETY AWARENESS WEEK—We are committed to Patient Safety at Hardin Medical Center. During this week, we wish to enhance our focus even more by reinforcing our commitment to our Fundamental Five. We have asked our leaders to implement these five behaviors, tools, or practices throughout our organization to help build a culture where safety is valued and actively pursued. This helps ensure that HMC is a safe place to receive and provide care.
Today we highlight the last of our "Fundamental Five ."This tool has been successfully implemented across all departments/areas/services of HMC over the past year. This last fundamental safety tool can be used to support the other four tools/practices/behaviors reviewed this week. This last tool is called a Learning Board. A Learning Board is a fundamental communication tool used to make defects/opportunities, progress, and resolution visible while tracking progress in resolving concerns...
The purpose of the Learning Board is to:
Surface defects/issues that threaten safe and effective operations
Allow Senior Leaders to identify stubborn issues/barriers, provide assistance, coaching support, and reinforcement of improvement efforts.
Make progress and resolutions of issues/concerns/defects visible to all
Provide a sense of how sensitive staff members/others are to threats to safety and the level/quality of local problem-solving skills.
As mentioned, the Learning Board can support the other four fundamental safety tools reviewed throughout this week. Briefs, Huddles, Debriefs, and Executive Pt Safety Rounds can/should be conducted with your team gathered around the Learning Board in your department/work area. This will allow the team to capture and record issues/concerns, track the progress/status of actions toward resolutions, and recognize and celebrate your team's actual progress and resolutions.
Commit to post, review, and discuss ideas/concerns/defects/opportunities on your Learning Board.
TOGETHER, we are better, stronger, safer. Everyone is vital to patient safety.