April’s safety behavior: Validate and verify
Each month, USA Health focuses on a safety behavior and tool to discuss and practice at huddles and in our departments.
As part of our Safety Starts with Me initiative, USA Health is introducing a safety behavior and tool of the month to be discussed and practiced at huddles and in departments across the health system.
April’s safety behavior and tool is “Validate and verify.”
“We want to encourage everyone to have a questioning attitude,” said Becky Pomrenke, M.S.N., R.N., patient safety manager for USA Health. “When approached with a situation, ask yourself, ‘Does this make sense to me?’ That’s using your internal detector. If it doesn’t make sense, check it out with an independent, qualified source.”
The source could be a patient, a technology source, another professional, procedures and references, or medical record documentation.
Pomrenke said that it’s important to validate and verify in every high-risk situation. “This includes any time your internal detector goes off or when there is a change in the patient condition or plan of care,” she said. “It only takes a second.”
