Kootenai | Kootenai Health | Issue 4, 2017

Patient Safety Comes First Kootenai Health and Mayo Clinic collaborate on best practices for patient safety By Andrea Nagel Two years ago, Kootenai Health changed the way safety risks are reported across the organization. The new system, called Midas, allows staff to report concerns about patient care, problems with machinery and facilities, and patient or family complaints, as well as good catches when staff prevent an issue or problem before it happens. The staff reports are sent directly to the managers and directors needed to help resolve the issue. Speakingup “We really want to make it easy for anyone in the organization to speak up if they see a safety concern, and Midas is our vehicle for that. Midas makes it easier and more convenient for staff to report events that need to be addressed,” Helen Holmes, director of Kootenai’s quality department, said. “Since implementing the new program, we’ve seen staff reporting nearly double.” Staff members are en- couraged to enter reports. Managers and members of the quality staff see it as necessary in order to identify process problems to prevent an incident from recurring. Safety reporting is just one of many efforts implemented to increase awareness of Kootenai’s top safety risks. In addition, Kootenai Health leadership established a daily 15-minute meeting called Daily Check-In (DCI) to discuss immediate issues and recog- nize staff or units for going above and beyond to provide excellent patient care. Lookingforinput “Now that we’ve established good habits in using the program and are seeing improvements in our reports, we want to see how we can better use Midas and optimize it to better fit our needs,” Helen said. Knowing that Mayo Clinic Kootenai and Mayo Clinic To learn more about Kootenai Health’s membership in the Mayo Clinic Care Network, visit KH.org/mayo . uses the same reporting sys- tem, Helen and her team used consulting hours provided as part of Kootenai’s member- ship in the Mayo Clinic Care Network to schedule a time for Kootenai Health staff to collaborate with members of Mayo Clinic’s quality team. “Voluntary safety reporting is a key mechanism to improve- ment and shared learning,” said Carina Welp, Mayo Clinic patient safety programmanag- er. “Near misses—incidents that could cause serious harm, but are caught before they reach the patient—are as important to report as actual harm. Both provide the opportunity to continuously improve patient care, services and systems.” Kootenai Health staff benefited from comparing the reporting processes and how each organization educates staff about safety initiatives. “In many ways this visit was reassuring,” Helen said. “Koote- nai is excelling in a lot of areas and being able to see that in comparison to a much larger organization, and to see that we’re on the right track makes us feel really good about the work we’re doing to keep our patients and staff safe.” CarinaWelp, patient safety programmanager at Mayo Clinic, presents to Kootenai Health staff members during their August patient safety collaboration. 20