News

MBH leads the way on patient safety

Tue, 04 Sep 2018 06:16:00

Mildura Base Hospital will become regional Victoria’s first “Speaking Up for Safety” hospital from this week.

In one of the biggest hospital-wide training programs ever undertaken at MBH, more than 500 staff across all areas have been trained in “Speaking Up for Safety”, a world-recognised program aimed at embedding safety culture.
The program has two parts, initially empowering staff to speak up in the moment if they see a colleague acting in a way that could put patients at risk.  The second part promotes professional accountability and includes a confidential reporting avenue about unsafe behaviour without fear of reprisal.  Through the use of trained peer messengers, staff are made aware of concerns about their behaviour in a non-judgemental way.  Research shows that merely raising awareness can significantly improve behaviour.
MBH chief executive officer Julia Morgan said the program training had already noticeably strengthened the communications skills of staff and the safety culture of the hospital.
“Speaking Up for Safety focusses on empowering every staff member, because it’s the staff who are the key to an effective safety culture,” Ms Morgan said.
“The training provides the skills, structure and a language for staff to feel confident and safe about raising concerns and about starting conversations with other staff and their supervisors if they have concerns about patient safety,” she said.
MBH has become the first regional public hospital in Victoria to entrench the program across the organisation with more than 90 percent of patient-facing staff already having completed the training.
Mildura Base Hospital operator Ramsay Health Care has already implemented Speaking Up For Safety across ten of its private hospitals, including some of Australia’s biggest hospitals. 
The program was developed by the Vanderbilt University and helps healthcare organisations overcome behaviors that can lead to poor patient outcomes.  It aims to achieve cultural change from within by normalising strong and direct communication.
The success of the program has seen it extended across the entire 70 hospitals in the Ramsay Health Care network, including Mildura Base Hospital.
Ms Morgan said the goal would be for all patient-facing staff to complete the training, including non-clinical support staff.
“Every staff member, from the most senior clinician to the most junior nurse needs the skills and insights to respectfully raise issues with colleagues when they are concerned about a patient’s safety,” Ms Morgan said.
“We are already noticing the impact of the program in empowering staff to support each other and raise concerns when they should,” she said.

Pictured:
MBH Emergency Department Intern Dr Nalin Choudahary and Associate Nurse Unit Manager Bridget Caminiti at the Speaking Up for Patient Safety Launch this week