Women’s College Hospital is proud to have participated in Canadian Patient Safety Week (October 24-28, 2021) in partnership with Healthcare Excellence Canada and alongside organizations from across Canada. This year’s theme was “Pressing Play on Safety Conversations.”
Q-Tip Catch Up Event
The final Q-Tip Catch Up event was this past Wednesday (October 26th) giving staff the opportunity to ensure they have collected all 25 Q-Tips. More than 150 Q-Tips were distributed. Q-Tips are pocket-sized information cards covering a range of topics including hand hygiene, workplace violence, information transfer at care transitions, falls prevention and injury reduction, two patient identification and medication management. If you missed the event, electronic versions of Q-Tips are available here or contact susan.carroll@wchospital.ca.
Canadian Patient Safety Week Quiz
Thank you to the more than 80 staff who completed the Canadian Patient Safety Week quiz. The quiz targeted the 3 communication safety tools implemented at WCH: I Have a Safety Concern, SBAR, and Teach Back. Staff referenced Q-Tips #7-9 and our Communication Safety Tool one-pagers to test their knowledge. ALL who completed the quiz received a cool WCH lunch bag and six winners were randomly selected to receive gift cards!
Virtual Thank You Cards
Patient safety Virtual Thank You Cards were popular again this year. More than 300 Virtual Thank You Cards were completed by WCH staff recognizing everyday safety behaviours and celebrating a positive safety culture. As an added incentive to participate10 prize draw winners amongst WCH staff received electronic gift cards. The stories were so inspiring, we thought we’d share a couple to showcase our amazing staff!
“Recently you filed several IRIS reports to identify a medication issue in your area. This is an important safety issue because the current practice puts patients and staff at risk. Because you spoke up, work is being done to address this issue.”
“You are an excellent team player and always ensure policies are followed and remind us how we can follow them.”
“Thank you for being detailed oriented when it comes to patient registrations and records which ensures patient safety. Thank you for correcting patient charts in a timely manner to mitigate patient risk.”
“Thank you for using patient identifiers prior to treatments and/or patient phone calls.”
“Thank you for keeping patient information confidential.”
“You always hear patients out and value their suggestions and concerns. You see to it that at the end of the day, everything have been resolved.”
“Thank you for speaking up and sharing safety incidents at our team meetings. Identifying incidents and near misses helps us understand factors and improve processes.”
“Thank you for advocating for more effective use of interpreter services at WCH and for recognizing that language is more than just a communication barrier – it is a quality and safety essential.”
If you have any questions, please contact the Quality, Safety & Patient Experience team at patientsafety@wchospital.ca
Thank you for keeping our patients safe!