Irvine, CA – On November 14, 2017, The Orange County Programs Committee closed its service year with an informative program on high reliability organizations featuring Dr. Tien Dihn, a medical consultant for the California Department of Public Health and Dr. Laura Crocitto, medical director for enterprise quality and safety for City of Hope. They were joined by Joel W. Helmke, FACHE, from City of Hope and Tammy Alvarez from Providence St. Joseph Health in a panel moderated by Debbie Moysychyn of Re3 Consulting.
Drs. Dinh and Crocitto presented on the current state of the healthcare industry in terms of medical errors and sentinel events. They then shared with the audience the ideal characteristics of high reliability organizations:
- Preoccupation with failure
- Reluctance to simplify interpretations
- Sensitive to operations
- Commitment to resilience, and
- Deference to expertise
The panel then discussed these characteristics and agreed that mistakes are inevitable, but complacency, overconfidence of skills, and insensitivity to operations are daily threats to the safety of patients and the staff of an organization. The panel then offered that errors can be avoided and an organization can be on their way to high-reliability if they first recognize that they must change their current system of operations and commit to resilience. The journey to high-reliability begins with:
- The leadership’s commitment to zero harm.
- The organization incorporating principles and practices Safety Culture across the organization.
- A widespread adoption of the most effective process improvement tools across the organization.
At the close of the discussions, the panel speakers shared the following reminders about high reliability organizations:
- Have a governing body that has the courage and commitment to high reliability
- Practice clear communication as part of the culture.
- Be proactive to safety, not reactive.
- Be transparent in processes, and put no blame on any contributor.
- Focus on the behaviors not outcomes; and
- Have a shared focus of high-reliability and mentality of “One for all, and all for one” throughout the organization.
Please contact HCE if you are interested in getting a copy of the presentation.
Pictures from the event are available in the Photo Gallery.
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