Women’s College Hospital is proud to participate in Canadian Patient Safety Week (October 23-27, 2023) in partnership with Healthcare Excellence Canada and alongside organizations from across Canada. Patient safety can be improved by even small changes that have a big impact on delivering safer care. This year, we will be celebrating Patient Safety Week by reflecting on the many ways our clinical staff, non-clinical staff and physicians work together to keep our patients safe and by thanking them for their hard work.
Small Changes. Big Impact. Safer Care.
This year’s theme for Patient Safety Week is “Small Changes. Big Impact. Safer Care.” Everyday clinical and non-clinical health care workers contribute to patient safety. By completing incident reports, engaging patients, participating in Senior Leadership Safety Walkarounds and by using communication safety tools to discuss concerns, WCH staff demonstrate their unwavering commitment to patient safety.
The hospital’s incident reporting information system (IRIS) captures actual or potential safety events. It helps us to identify and trend incidents, learn from our experiences, and make improvements to prevent similar occurrences from happening in the future.
Patient engagement has been shown to improve adherence to safety practices by enlisting patients in identifying adverse events, empowering patients to ensure safe care, and emphasizing patient involvement to strengthen safety culture. At WCH, the Declaration of Patient Values strengthens our commitment to deliver excellent care and supports a safety culture. Patient Relations provides patients and their care partners with the opportunity to give feedback about their experiences at WCH and provide valuable information regarding actual or potential safety incidents. The Experience Advisor program supports engagement activities across WCH to ensure the voice of those with lived experience is reflected in our programs and initiatives.
Senior Leadership Safety Walkarounds (SLSW) allow staff, physicians, volunteers, and learners to engage with Senior Leaders in open discussions about safety. SLSW enhance the safety culture at Women’s College Hospital by:
- Encouraging open dialogue about safety in the spaces where Our People work
- Demonstrating the commitment of our staff and Senior Leadership to safety
Effective communication is a recognized safety best practice. It is estimated that communication errors are a major factor in more than 70% of healthcare adverse events. Ineffective communication can contribute to misdiagnoses, treatment errors, delays, re-work, frustration, healthcare worker injury, patient injury, and even death. Women’s College Hospital has implemented three common Communication Safety Tools applicable to the ambulatory care environment in both clinical and non-clinical work situations:
- I Have a Safety Concern is a phrase to raise or escalate a safety concern, allowing a pause for the creation of a safe space between the sender and listener.
- SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation) is a situational briefing tool providing a standardized communication frameworkto ensure concise, accurate, clear, and timely communication.
- Teach Back plays a role in closed loop communication to ensure what the sender communicated was understood by the listener.
What to expect during Patient Safety Week
Visit the Patient Safety Week intranet page for information on how to win great prizes including sweet treats, gift cards and a chance for a free vacation day during the following activities:
- Virtual Patient Safety Thank You Cards
- Senior Leadership Safety Walkarounds (SLSW)
- Patient Safety booth in the atrium on Wednesday, Oct 25, 2023 11:30-1:30pm
If you have any questions, please contact the Quality, Safety & Patient Experience team at patientsafety@wchospital.ca
Thank you for keeping our patients safe!