More than 1670 people from over 500 sites in 17 countries saved over 215 tonnes of carbon emissions by participating in Canada’s Virtual Forum on Patient Safety and Quality Improvement that kicked-off on Monday, October 31, 2011. The first of the five-day Forum provided presentations and panel discussions focused on patient safety: what does it mean; what does it take?
Hugh MacLeod, CEO, Canadian Patient Safety Institute welcomed participants to the global conversation as they inspire extraordinary improvement in patient safety and quality improvement. MacLeod also officially launched Canadian Patient Safety Week in his opening remarks.
In the opening presentation, Martin Hatlie, President of Partners for Patient Safety, says that 75 per cent of things that go wrong are routine, but to make progress and make transformational change in the healthcare culture, we can learn from patient safety stories. He also noted that trustworthiness is a powerful concept emerging in patient safety discussions that is resonating with many audiences. Hatlie outlined an overarching model that identifies four domains of patient safety (recipients of care, providers, systems for therapeutic action and methods) and described 11 elements that fall within these domains.
The Senior Executive Leadership panel discussion provided honest and impactful insights from Chris Power, President and CEO, Capital District Health Authority; Vickie Kaminski, President and CEO, Eastern Health; Robert Howard, President and CEO, St. Michael’s Hospital; and Rheta Fanizza, Senior Vice-President of Saint Elizabeth Health Care. These leaders talked about the perils and pearls of implementing patient safety and quality improvement initiatives in their organizations, reinforcing staff/physician/citizen/patient engagement and staying true to their vision for a transformation in culture to take place. This candid discussion brought much comment and questions from the Forum participants.
Monday’s program also included patient narratives, reinforcing the importance of including the perspective of patients and their families in patient safety discussions; a summary of changes to patient safety classifications and five new words to be used to describe patient safety incidents in healthcare conversations; and an overview of the Patient Safety Education Program-Canada and how the program has been implemented at Bridgeport Health.
Click here to register, learn more or hear the presentations from Canada’s Forum on Patient Safety and Quality Improvement. Join the conversation and send your questions, comments and patient stories to: info@patientsafetyinstitute.ca. There are many more patient stories, presentations and panel discussions to come; the Virtual Forum continues daily until Friday, November 4th.