Patient Safety
Patient safety is everyone’s responsibility. Every individual, team, and department contributes to a culture of safety and advancement of the six safety competencies to build and maintain a safe system which is fundamental to creating a culture of safety across the spectrum of care:
1. Patient safety culture
- Patient safety culture is an integrated pattern of individual and organizational actions and behaviours based on shared beliefs and values that enables individuals and organizations to continuously seek to minimize the potential for patient harm which may result from the processes of care delivery. Patient safety culture is characterized by authentic leadership, broad, timely and responsive communication, transparency of information, as well as the engagement of patients and families.
2. Teamwork
- Optimizing teamwork within and across teams to maximize patient safety, quality of care, and health outcomes.
3. Communication
- Health-care professionals engage patients and family members in an open dialogue to promote patient safety, and to prevent and respond to patient safety incidents.
4. Safety, risk and quality improvement
- Acting on safety risks is a broad concept that encompasses identifying, assessing, reducing, and mitigating safety risks to both patients and health-care providers. This is accomplished by engaging patients and their families and other members of the care team in implementing evidence-informed principles of system design and quality improvement.
5. Human and system factors
- Managing the interaction between people (individuals, health-care providers, patients, family members and teams) and other system factors (tasks, tools/technologies, organizational, environmental) to optimize patient safety.
6. Recognize, respond to and disclose patient safety incidents
- Recognize and report patient safety incidents, respond appropriately and effectively to mitigate harm, ensure disclosure, and prevent recurrences.
(Source: Canadian Patient Safety Institute. The Safety Competencies: Enhancing Patient Safety Across the Health Professions. 2nd Edition. Edmonton, Alberta; March 2020)
Resources
- Safety Competencies Framework (healthcareexcellence.ca)
- Culture of Safety Policy
- A just culture is essential to building a culture of safety - see Just Culture - Risk Note-HIROC document.
Related documents
Reporting and response
Key accountabilities and core functions
Key accountabilities
- Quality & Safety in Patient Safety processes
- Patient Safety Program and Plan
- Standardization of patient safety processes
- SHA-wide dissemination of standardized processes
- Patient Safety Science incorporated into SHA Management System
Core functions
- In collaboration with Operations, safety event investigation including Critical Incidents
- Deeming, notifying, investigating and reporting of all Critical Incidents to the Ministry of Health as per legislation
- Patient Safety Incident Report data trending and analysis – future state when there is an electronic system standardizing reporting SHA-wide
- Coaching and consultation on patient safety concepts and process - human factors, just culture, root cause analysis, policy and legislation, etc.
- Liaison with the Risk Management when there are potential legal implications identified
- Liaison with Managers, Physician Leadership, Human Resources, and Practitioner Staff Affairs when potential accountability/performance concerns are identified through patient safety incident reports or during an investigation