SaferPatients

A survey undertaken by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices last fall has shown that the current economic climate has forced staff cuts, reduced the amount of technology and equipment that hospitals can purchase, and negatively affected the culture of safety by reducing the amount of time staff members have to report errors. Nearly 850 people took the survey and of those, 41% said the economy had a large to moderate negative impact on medication safety in particular.

Some specific findings concerning medication safety include:

• Forty-two percent of respondents said the staff person who dedicates time to medication safety (either a medication safety officer or quality improvement specialist) has had hours cut or his or her position completely eliminated.
• Less attention is being paid to the purchasing of safe medication equipment, such as using multi-use vials instead of single-use.
• Caregivers are more apt to rush drug administration practices as well as have less time to educate patients about their medications.
• Pharmacists are less likely to have a clinical presence on patients’ units.

If not the economy, the stressor would be something else. Health care reform, reimbursement reductions, nursing shortages, and staff turnover all could easily replace (or add to) the economy as a stressor to your health care system. Nothing ever stays the same. It is not a question of “if,” but a question of “when” the next stressor will hit.

Despite the ever-changing gale-force winds of stress blowing their way, all high reliability organizations (HRO) have a solid safety system hardwired into their very foundation. They don’t depend exclusively on the extraordinary efforts of excellent staff to fend off errors. HROs give their capable staff an underlying safety system of accountability, leadership support, just culture, safety tools like checklists, and data scorecards that protect the integrity of their operations from the buffeting winds of change.

Do you have such a system?

If not, I predict more mistakes in the future of your organization.

In my last post, I talked about making an emotional connection with your colleagues when describing the goal of your patient safety initiative. Seth Godin made a wonder blog post on this very issue. He said,

“Relying too much on proof distracts you from the real mission–which is emotional connection.”

Read his entire post at this link.