11 ways to start a safety culture in anesthesia

After a recent sentinel event alert, Jackson, Mich.-based Anesthesia Business Consultants President and CEO Tony Mira penned a blog post helping anesthesiologists develop a safety-based culture through 11 implementable practices.

To tackle safety problems and protect patients, healthcare organizations need an organizational culture based on safety.

Here are 11 ways to improve your organization's safety culture:

1. Use a transparent and non-punitive approach to reporting adverse events, close calls and unsafe conditions.

2. Recognize and differentiate from human and system errors.

3. Eliminate intimidating behaviors.

4. Develop policies that support a safety-first culture and clearly communicate them.

5. Recognize team members who report adverse events while creating a system to share their good practices with team members.

6. Determine safety baselines with an accredited tool. The Joint Commission recommends the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's survey on patient safety culture.

7. Produce and analyze surveys to determine how to improve safety practices.

8. Use assessment data and surveys to implement initiatives that strengthen safety culture.

9. Implement safety culture training lessons.

10. Assess strengths and weaknesses and prioritize improvements.

11. Repeat culture assessments every 18 to 24 months and continuously improve.

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