Patient Safety Culture Reviews

It may be first be useful to look at a definition of culture: -'Culture can be described as characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people. That include, shared patterns of behaviours, interactions, thought concepts and understanding or more simply put ‘how things are done around here’.

In health and social care phrases such as an ‘open or blame’ culture have been in use for decades.Experts and researchers are increasing the emphasis on the role of culture in all aspects of health and social care and it is well documented that creating the right culture has a direct impact on positive outcomes. Some key questions to ask when reviewing culture in your organisation are.

• Why is creating the right culture important in a health & social care setting?
  

• How do you go about creating the right culture for your healthcare organisation?
  

Creating and measuring culture in health & social care poses some challenges. There are a number of barriers that are difficult to quantify, such as lack of openness, mistrust between employees, undervaluing staff and lack of transparency. All of which need addressing before any culture change could happen. Combined with a lack of tools, clear actions and support to realise and develop such as change.

A good starting point would be to determine what type of culture is present within your organisation, is there a culture of ‘blame’ for example; where mistakes are addressed, and blame is placed on an individual, are fingers pointed at an individual when things go wrong? Or on the other end of the spectrum an open, safety culture. Some of the key elements are described below.

• Acknowledging the high-risk nature of your organisations activities and being determined to achieve consistently safe processes and procedures.

• A blame-free environment where individuals are able to report errors, omissions or near misses without fear of punishment.

• Learning from both mistakes and positive experiences.

• Encouragement of collaboration across organisations, teams and individuals to seek solutions to safety problems.
  
• Promotes learning and good communication

• Rewards, values and develops all staff

• Provides a commitment to organise resources to address safety concerns so that you can continuously improve.
  
• Actively encourages innovation.

Each organisation will be at different stages, from developing the foundations, to embedding and sustaining a safety culture.

Advanced Clinical Solutions has devised a number of useful tools and support packages for assessing and developing your healthcare organisation’s culture of safety. These can be used to help determine the direction for your safety culture journey.

See how Advanced Clinical Solutions can help you with improving your Patient Safety Culture

Book a free consultation with our clinical team here.

or

Request a Free Review of your CQC Report