Page 18 - Christiana Care Focus April 2019

The Christiana Care Way |
Putting patient safety first
takes teamwork, communication and reliabilty
During Patient Safety Awareness Week in March, Christiana Care hosted national safety expert Craig Clapper, PE, CMQ, who spoke on “Putting Safety Culture to Work” to more than 200 caregivers.
CRAIG CLAPPER’S FIVE TAKEAWAYS
1. ACHIEVE HIGH RELIABILITY BY DOING IT RIGHT EVERY TIME
From stocking a machine to double checking a medication, every correctly completed task saves lives. To illustrate, Clapper told the story of Charlie Plumb, a Vietnam War-era aviator.
When Plumb’s plane was shot down, he successfully parachuted to land. Back in the United States, he encountered the man who’d routinely packed his parachute. Plumb expressed gratitude for the man’s thoroughness on that day.
“You never really know when you’ll be saving a life. The day Charlie needed that chute, it worked.”
2. PRACTICE “STAR”
The acronym puts a pause between each step: • Stop and focus on the task.
• Think about what you need to do.
• Act.
• Review to confirm that your actions produced the desired result.
“People who are good at the STAR technique are doing it maybe 100 times a day. It’s a two-minute investment in lowering your harm rate by 80%.”
16 CHRISTIANA CARE HEALTH SYSTEM
Craig Clapper, PE, CMQ, is coauthor of “Zero Harm: How to Improve Patient and Workforce Safety in Healthcare,” and a partner with HPI Press Ganey Transformational Advisory Services, which helps health care organizations improve safety, quality and patient-centered care.