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Patient safety depends on leaders who are committed to collaboration, open communication and ongoing improvement.

Patient Safety Planning Tools / Leadership
 

Take a safety-focused leadership approach

A safety culture will flourish in an organization with leaders who show commitment to fostering a collaborative environment and responding to safety concerns.

Demonstrate commitment to patient safety 

  • Leaders should show they care about patient safety and want to hear concerns from the entire team.
  • Encourage suggestions from all staff regardless of their role.
  • Put safety concerns on the agenda for all staff meetings and approach in a constructive way.
    • Always thank staff for raising concerns.
    • Actively work to meet staff needs. When possible, take action immediately (for example, contact facilities about a work order for faulty equipment). If the organization is unable to fulfill a request, brainstorm alternate approaches.
  • Establish regular visits from leadership — even if brief — to frontline staff to listen for, track, and respond to safety concerns (often called WalkRounds)
    • Set dates in advance and stick to the schedule to show commitment.
    • Consider also visiting patients and families to gather feedback and demonstrate leadership commitment to patient safety.

Take responsibility for adverse and patient harm events 

  • Actively seek answers to questions about what went wrong; expect and encourage staff to probe deeply for root causes.
  • Insist that corrective actions be devised, implemented and evaluated for effectiveness.
  • See the Analyze tool for more resources for responding after an adverse event.

Encourage development of reliable processes

  • Encourage staff to build processes for standard care and communication.
  • Be sure the organization is soliciting input from patients and family members.
  • Invest energy and resources in improved reliability.
  • Be sure safety factors are weighed when considering changes to care delivery processes.
  • Support continuous process improvement in all areas; patient safety work is ongoing and iterative.

This page was adapted from the Betsy Lehman Center's Patient Safety Navigator. Visit the Navigator website to learn more about analyzing adverse events, communicating in the aftermath of serious harm, and reporting medical errors to state and federal agencies.