Office Culture Aimed Toward Patient Safety

Patient safety is the responsibility of every healthcare professional. Health care errors can occur at any point in the health care delivery system. These errors can be costly in terms of human life, function, and health care dollars. There is also a price in terms of lost trust and dissatisfaction experienced by both patients and health care practitioners.

There are ways you can develop a Patient Safety Culture in your practice.

• Clear communication is key to safe care.
• Work in collaboration with members of the multidisciplinary care team, hospitals, and other patient care facilities.
• Include the patient as an important member of his care team.

Examples of safe practices include:

• Providing instructions to patients in terms they can easily understand.
• Writing legibly when documenting orders or prescribing.
• Avoiding abbreviations that can be misinterpreted.
• Reading all communications from specialists.
• Sending documentation to other providers, as necessary, to assure continuity and coordination of care.
• When calling orders over the telephone, have the person on the other end repeat the information back to you.

You can take an active role to ensure patient safety by:

• Collaborating with hospitals and supporting their safety culture.
• Bringing patient safety issues to the committees you attend.
• Reporting errors or “close calls” to the risk management department.
• Offering to participate in multidisciplinary work groups dedicated to error reduction.
• Asking the quality improvement department how you can support compliance with their safety initiatives.

Gateway Health Plan also works to ensure patient safety by monitoring and addressing quality of care issues identified through pharmacy utilization data, continuity and coordination of care standards, sentinel/adverse event data, Disease Management Program follow-up, and member complaints.

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