FEATURE
but also to other situations and espe- cially those involving crisis. In the midst of a crisis is when an organi- zation’s culture is really going to be tested.” A test like that presents an oppor- tunity for an ASC to improve its cul- ture of safety, says Roberta Trem- per, RN, administrator for Advanced Surgical Care of Boerne in Boerne, Texas. “We often use terms like cul- ture of safety and patient safety here interchangeably, which is why I do not think our staff thought much about keeping themselves safe. Now we have this virus that can poten- tially harm us and our patients. It opened our eyes more and made us rethink our approach to safety.”
Rethink Your Approach to Culture of Safety
Crises like the COVID-19 pandemic test an organization’s habits and help reshape and improve it BY ROBERT KURTZ
I
n 2018, staff at Wichita Falls Endoscopy Center in Wichita
Falls, Texas, completed the Agency for Healthcare Research and Qual- ity’s (AHRQ) Ambulatory Surgery Center Survey on Patient Safety Cul- ture. This served as the foundation for the ASC's development of a culture of safety, says Jeremy Watkins, RN, clinical manager. Little did he know how valuable it would prove just a few years later. “The survey showed us that we had a strong culture of safety, but it was not at the forefront of everyone's mind,” he says. “We created a pro- gram that encouraged staff to report anything that raised a potential safety
red flag.” Those experiences put the staff on high alert and served as a good primer for them to be ready for a challenge like the COVID-19 pan- demic. “The timely mindset shift was very advantageous.”
The culture of safety is central to
how staff engage with one another and are likely to respond to challeng- ing situations, says Lisa Sinsel, RN, senior director of clinical services for Surgical Care Affiliates, based in Deerfield, Illinois. “The AHRQ sur- vey demonstrates how areas such as teamwork, communication, staffing, leadership support, response to mis- takes and organizational learning are relevant to a culture of patient safety
24 ASC FOCUS JANUARY 2021 |
ascfocus.org
Stepping Up to Meet the Challenge At the beginning of the pandemic, Wichita Falls Endoscopy Center’s physician leadership made the deci- sion to continue performing certain diagnostic procedures deemed urgent and necessary. Their mindset, Wat- kins says, was that by remaining at least partially open, the ASC would better help ensure the local hospital's emergency room did not get crowded with dysphagia cases, people requir- ing dilation or other endoscopy issues. To continue seeing patients when information about the novel coronavirus was constantly chang- ing required everyone in the ASC to buy into the need for a higher level of safety. “Our physician leadership really set the tone,” Watkins
says. “We
realized quickly that implementing a multi-faceted screening process for patients, expanding our cleaning and disinfection processes, and tak- ing other precautions would be criti- cal to protecting our patients and our- selves.” The ASC achieved a united front around these expanded safety measures without exception. “Staff know they should bring any questions and concerns to management, and our
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