Patient Safety Awareness Week launched at USA Health
Patient Safety Awareness Week, March 9-15, serves as a dedicated time and platform for growing awareness about patient safety and recognizing the work already being done.
By Carol McPhail
cmcphail@health.southalabama.edu
USA Health kicked off Patient Safety Awareness Week on Monday with a safety seminar featuring national speakers and the first of three safety fairs planned across the health system.
Timothy McDonald, M.D., J.D., chief patient safety and risk officer for RLDatix and a professor of law at Loyola University in Chicago, was the featured speaker at the seminar, held in the University Hospital second-floor conference center and livestreamed on Teams.
A pediatrician, anesthesiologist, attorney and author, McDonald shared his experiences at the University of Illinois and how the organization developed a comprehensive and systematic response to patient harm. “The goal is to connect the heart with the head,” McDonald said, echoing themes from his 2023 TEDx presentation, “Healing After Harm in Healthcare.”
McDonald discussed how a case of preventable harm that led to a lawsuit led to improved ways to respond to patient harm, embracing full transparency, breaking down a “wall of silence,” and creating a culture of accountability and healing for patients, families and caregivers. McDonald and others published a paper in 2016 showing that the “Seven Pillars” response resulted in an increased number of incident reports and analyses, and reductions in claims, legal fees and insurance costs.
The second speaker, Blake Johnson, environmental, health and safety director at Airbus, discussed how safety practices and principles applied by fast-growing Airbus can be translated to the healthcare sector.
“Good people can support safety performance in the short term,” Johnson said, “but a good system will deliver long-term results, which your patients, stakeholders and community require.”
In 2024, USA Health expanded its partnership with RLDatix, investing in a comprehensive suite of safety solutions to gain a 360-degree view of provider performance, and advance a culture of safety. The tools, which are being implemented this year, will allow USA Health to connect fragmented data for a meaningful understanding of its practice variability, enabling it to objectively assess performance, identify hotspots for improvement and advance a culture of safety.
Patient Safety Awareness Week, March 9-15, serves as a dedicated time and platform for growing awareness about patient safety and recognizing the work already being done. Healthcare consultant RLDatix is the sponsor for USA Health’s slate of activities.
