27 August 2024 | 15:00-16:30

Format: Presentation
Stream: Safety

Part 1: Simple rules for ensuring safe care and avoiding medico-legal pitfalls

In this presentation, the audience will learn about seven basic rules that physicians and care providers can follow to provide safe care to their patients. These rules will also help them avoid medico-legal pitfalls. The seven rules are as follows:

1. Practice good medicine


2. Maintain good documentation


3.  Set clear expectations


4. Foster good communication


5. Ensure timely escalation


6. Promote patient-centered decision-making


7. Understand limitations

During the presentation, we will discuss examples of common mistakes that care providers make in these seven areas, and provide solutions to help them deliver safe and patient-centered care.

Shaik Mohiuddin SEHA, UAE

 

Part 2: Preventing goal-discordant care: improving documentation of advance care planning

Given the seriousness of a cancer diagnosis, it is important that patients engage in advance care planning (ACP) discussions with the healthcare team. Patients whose wishes are not documented in the electronic health record (EHR) are at risk of receiving goal-discordant care. Using a Lean Six Sigma framework, we evaluated the impact of a series of interventions using the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) Cycle. A multidisciplinary workgroup was convened, including representatives from the center’s Patient and Family Advisory Council. We created an analytical ACP dashboard. Next, we are developing a toolkit to streamline consistent ACP documentation and a deicated qualified healthcare professional to assist patients with goals of care discussions.

Yanka Campbell Johns Hopkins, USA

 

Part 3: The phoenix rises: improving patient safety and communication through revitalizing the SSC

Inspired by the rising Phoenix, this session shares our journey of rejuvenating the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist (SSC). The University of Calgary’s Equity, Quality, Improvement, and Safety (EQuIS) Research Team presents its collaboration with Harvard’s Ariadne Labs in developing the High-Performance Checklist (HPC) Toolkit. Using a quality improvement (QI) model, the Toolkit provides tools for customizing and optimizing the SSC. In our presentation, we describe the Toolkit’s development and deployment in surgical suites in Alberta, Canada, and Singapore. Employing mixed methods, we worked with surgical teams to rejuvenate their SSCs. This session demonstrates the power of innovation through iterative, multidisciplinary collaboration, offering insights for clinicians and QI professionals.

Mary Brindle University of Calgary, Canada