National Patient Safety Week: Scoring Points for Patient Safety

March 14, 2017

This week — March 12 through March 18 — is National Patient Safety Week. It also is that time of year when college basketball teams give it their all for the ultimate title. With a little imagination, this is what it might look like if we combined Patient Safety at Texas Children’s and March Madness.

To win at patient safety and basketball, a team of dedicated coaches and players is needed! At Texas Children’s, we have hundreds of great Safety Coaches, 372 recruited and trained to be exact, much more than any basketball team.

Team Texas Children’s is comprised of multiple devoted and enthusiastic players and they are: Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus, Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women, Texas Children’s Medical Center Campus, Outpatient Clinics & Health Centers, and Texas Children’s The Woodlands, our newest member to the team. Each player performs a vital role in Texas Children’s pursuit of the ultimate goal, Zero Patient Harm.

The scoreboard shows that West Campus is scoring big for Patient Safety with day and night executive safety walk rounds, monthly microsystem Safety Coach meetings, daily campus safety briefings, and multidisciplinary case conferences to learn from precursor and/or near miss safety events.

The Pavilion for Women is a proven player. They hit the target of 100 percent compliance with antenatal steroids administration; reduced obstetric adverse events by almost 50 percent; saw a significant reduction in post cesarean surgical site infections; and are implementing the use of a Fetal-Maternal Early Warning System for early recognition of a patient who may need a higher level of care.

Main Campus is a versatile player. When playing as a point guard, they lead the team in assists and aid in directing plays to improve patient safety. Main Campus has been working hard at implementing new practices to prevent intraventricular hemorrhages in newborn patients, enhancing staff knowledge about alarm management, and establishing new processes to care for aggressive behavioral health patients, which help keep patients and staff free from harm. They also provide leadership to the Safety Coach Program.

Outpatient Clinics and Health Centers have exceptional moves aimed at fall reduction, critical lab reporting, recognizing and responding to medical emergencies, and the identification of potential safety issues with the help of a Safety Coach.

New to the team this year is The Woodlands. The Woodlands ballers have been busy perfecting their game. They participated in three days of “live action” simulation activities prior to the opening of the ambulatory clinics, where they identified possible threats to patient safety that could be eliminated before seeing their first patient! All of the Woodlands team leaders completed “QI Boot Camp” (a review of quality improvement principles) and all staff and leaders completed Error Prevention Training to further emphasize the importance of building a culture of patient safety. Patient safety is being especially highlighted at the Woodlands through more simulation training and testing throughout the month of March as they prepare for their April 11 inpatient opening.

The Team’s playbook is full of special moves to eliminate harm. It includes the use of error prevention tools and techniques, compliance with steps to prevent CLABSIs, CAUTIs, VAPs, SSIs, PIVIEs, ADEs, pressure injuries, unplanned extubations, falls, readmissions, and more. Team Texas Children’s outperforms any college basketball team when it comes to key plays.

Whether your role is on the court, providing patient care, or off the court like keeping things clean, repaired, and ready to go, you are part of Team Texas Children’s. You are instrumental to Team Texas Children’s ultimate goal! Zero Patient Harm is within our reach!

To assist Team Texas Children’s in Scoring Points for Patient Safety (and have a little fun too), click on the links below.

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