1. E1 Leading and creating safer health care environments: The CEO & patient safety walkabouts
Gren Kershaw
Chief Executive – Conwy and Denbighshire Trust
Gerry Marr
Chief Operating Officer – NHS Tayside
Pat O’Connor
Head of Safety Governance and Risk – NHS Tayside

2. Overview Understand the role of Executives in Patient safety
Identifying strengths and create leaders for patient safety
Design a patient safety walkround program for your healthcare system to promote cultural change
Share examples of safety walkround processes and outcomes

3. We are Here

4. Why the Health Foundation chose to work on improving patient safety
To Improve health, and the quality of healthcare for the people of the UK
There is an identified need for patient safety to improve
There is a strong evidence base for what works
A focus on patient safety involves clinicians, managers, and patients
The Health Foundation is an independent charity that aims to improve health and the quality of healthcare for the people of the UK
i) There is an identified need for patient safety to improve
Many reports worldwide including ‘An organisation with a memory’ (Department of Health, 2000) have observed that many breakdowns in patient safety have a familiar ring, displaying strong similarities to incidents that have happened before.
ii) There is a strong evidence base for what works
The evidence base for preventing similar incidents and creating safer care practices is strong, but there is an implementation gap, with evidence still not informing many commonplace procedures and practices in hospitals.
We want you to achieve measurable improvements in the care that you offer, then you can start to develop your role as an exemplar rolling out models for improvement, providing opportunities and access for others to learn from your experiences.
iii) A focus on patient safety involves clinicians, managers and patients.
Safer organisations exhibit a culture that puts patient safety at the centre of everything they do. We hope that a focus on patient safety will help transform organisational culture, improving patient safety by galvanising support from clinicians, managers and patients. Also, by improving safety, organisations can learn how to improve the quality and performance of services overall.

5. The Health Foundation’s Safer Patient’s Initiative
UK Program
4 Healthcare Systems involved in 1st wave
1 In each UK Country, Scotland England, Ireland and Wales
Whole system change package
Team driven from the board to the front line
20 new hospitals joined Dec 2006

6. What were the aims and goals?
Create a culture that demonstrates Patient Safety as our highest priority
Reduce adverse events by 50%
Build local capacity and capability for improvement
Develop highly reliable processes of care
Transform the organisational approach to Patient Safety & Quality Improvement

7. Our Goal
Plan for system-level (not just project-level) patient safety improvements
Weave patient improvement activity into the fabric of everyday life for the entire organisation

8. Work Streams 5 key Areas of patient safety work Leadership
Medicines Management
Operating theatres
Intensive Care
General Ward
Detailed plan for spread throughout the
organisation

9. How did we make things happen?
Implementing evidenced based practice
Learning from the experts
Using small tests of change (PDSA cycles)
Using data and measuring change
Managing clinical resistance
Demonstrating active leadership

10. As leaders it was essential to…
Promote patient safety at every opportunity
Put Patient Safety first item on every agenda
Manage the safety initiative as a project –making sure things get done!
Manage the spread of good practice
Introduce “Safety Walkrounds”

11. Leadership Patient Safety as a Strategic Imperative
Clear Goals and Measurement
Reduce variability, waste and harm
Skill building

12. The Key Elements of Breakthrough Improvement
Will to do what it takes to change to a new system
Ideas on which to base the design of the new system
Execution of the ideas

13. Patient safety program
Provide a focus
Celebrate success
Accelerate Improvements
Small test of change to build confidence and competence in improvement techniques

14. Patient Safety Walkround
AIM
Highly structured process to bring lead executives and front line staff together to have patient safety conversation with a purpose to prevent, detect and mitigate patient harm.

15. What are WalkRounds?
A carefully planned discussion between Frontline Staff and
A hospital leader (or two)
A Patient Safety Manager/Director/Specialist
A scribe.
Other (Managers, Pharmacists, Students, patients )
lasting about one hour and regularly repeated
As frequently as weekly, but at a minimum monthly,
located wherever frontline staff do their work,
fully supported by back office quality analysis,
fully integrated into organisational committees,
requiring rigorous application to detail in every step.

16. History of Walkrounds 2004 Safer Patient’s Initiative 1997
IHI Collaboratives - Hospital teams work on rapid cycle improvement Leadership support tool
1999
WalkRounds concept is born in IHI Idealised Design meeting
Many hospitals in IHI Collaboratives begin to implement
2000-3
Piloted in several US Hospitals
2003
JCAHO Journal publishes first article on WalkRounds WalkRounds in controlled trial
2004 Safer Patient’s Initiative

17. How can patient safety walkrounds help?
The Patient Safety Walkround process seeks to:
Increase the awareness of safety issues by clinicians
Make safety a priority for senior executives
Educate staff about patient safety concepts such as non-punitive reporting and
Obtain and act on information elicited from staff about safety problems and issues
Close the gap between those who make or prevent error and those who make decisions to change the systems

18. Activity
Discuss with a partner the ways in which you have a similar process in your organisation and how it works or how it could be set up

19. What it is for ?
Safety quality, efficiency, effectiveness, timeliness, and equity
are equal parts of the conversation.
A comprehensive management tool designed to:
Help Leaders lead better,
Ensure ever safer and more reliable systems,
Help align frontline and leadership perspectives

20. What its not about Parading senior leadership around the hospital.
A relaxed conversation with frontline employees.
Specifically about employee or patient satisfaction.
Designed to solely address safety issues.
Risky conversations.
A soapbox for voicing opinions..
However, these may periodically be attributes of WalkRounds

21. Who will participate?
Senior Executives (President, Chief Nurse, Board Members,Chief Medical Officer, Clinical Chairs)
Patient. Safety, Quality, Risk Manager
Managers/Administrators/Physician leaders
Frontline Staff
Doctors,Nurses,Pharmacists
Students, unit administrators, cleaners, porters
Whoever is available and involved in clinical care

22. When and where? Weekly Everywhere Varying times Nighttime shifts
Patient care floors
Labs
Radiology
Pharmacy
Non-Clinical areas

23. The Process Schedule one year in advance.
Base dates and times on staff availability and executive availability. Take into consideration shifts, lulls in activity and doctor/ team rounds.
Schedule WalkRounds weekly.
Frequency of WalkRounds will vary based on the size of the organisation, but one round per week is a good “rule of thumb.”
Rounds should occur at any site where employees and clinicians are involved in patient care but you may include non-clinicial services.

24. Detailed Process Develop an introduction Highlight
Confidentiality
What happens with the information
Develop closing remarks Thank all for participating
Summarise key issues
Ask that all staff talk to their colleagues about the WalkRounds
Remind all staff that this is not the only forum for discussing safety issues; offer contact information

25. Example Questions How will the next patient be harmed in your area?
How does the environment fail you?
How was the last patient harmed in this area – what happened ?
What prevents you from keeping your patients safe?
What can senior leaders do to help?

26. Picture

27. Getting Started Developing an outline
Get buy-in from senior executives; align expectations
Time commitment
Expected level of participation on rounds
Level of responsibility with follow up
Resources required
Be clear about the process
Peer review protected
Expectations for those who participate
Promote the value of WalkRounds to nursing and medical staff
Reassure middle management that WalkRounds will support them, and will not be an avenue to bypass them.

29. Getting Started Planning
Discuss optimum time for rounds with nurse managers and executives
Avoid shift change
Offer off-shift visits
Develop a hospital map to keep track of visits
Create a 3-6 month schedule and distribute
Develop questions to ask
Prepare senior executives

30. Collect and Analyse Data
Track all individuals who participate: date, time, and location, comments heard.
Classify each hazard/event by its contributing factors.
Record frequency of each hazard/event
Record severity of potential or actual impact on patients and prioritise.
Priority informs actions for senior leadership

31. Assign Action Items
Produce reports WalkRounds comments, and distribute the reports to senior executives, patient safety committees, and the Hospital Board.
Determine action
On a monthly basis review monthly reports of both open and closed action items.

32. Activity
Discuss in your healthcare system how you could use or improve a patient safety walkround system

33. Give Feedback to Board, Leadership, Management, and Staff
Develop a plan for feeding information back to rounds participants, senior leaders, committees, and the Board within your organisation.
Share good practice in addition to the issues that are identified and addressed newsletters, roadshows,presentations
Be rigorous!

35. Example of WalkRounds™ Report to Executives
Update:
Challenges with the process –cancelations/attendees
List of prioritised concerns raised during patient safety WalkRound for senior management attention
Whole systems concerns
Unit concerns
Environmental concerns
Individual service issues

36. Outline Feedback to Frontline
Point of contact
Thank you
Date
Participant role or identification.
Recognition that this process is helping the whole organisation to improve
Key priorities discussed /Actions agreed
E.g.
Large number of new on staff .
Difficult to get enough experienced RNs on nights and weekends.
Not enough equipment
Any further information contact

37. Picture

38. Measure Your Progress
Refer to actions taken as the result of WalkRounds during later visits to each unit.
Measure safety climate changes periodically, using the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire.
Continually track follow-up comments, time to complete action items, frequency scores, and other indicators recorded in the WalkRounds database.

39. Key Learnings
Surprisingly, it is not difficult to elicit comments from staff
Important to have multi-disciplinary representation
Important for leadership participants to be well-versed in on-going quality/safety initiatives
Can provide feedback at time of WalkRound

40. Key Learnings
Managing the large amount of information is the challenge
Prioritisation
Levels of action
Reporting and sharing
In a large institution, coordinated quality and safety groups are essential
To assign accountability
To receive updates on follow-up

41. Examples of success
Lead Nurse spending too much time on Administration
Actions
Local review of unit activity
Introduced new hospital processes for bed management system
Whole hospital review
National review of Senior Charge Nurse Role

42. Example

43. Summary Make a plan Tell staff what its for Listen to the discussion
Agree key priorities
Assign action and
Follow up
Revisit and make sure its happened

44. Further Information pat.oconnor@nhs.net NHS Tayside Kingscross
Clepington Road
Dundee
Scotland ,UK
DD3 8EA

45. Refs and other helpful resources
Frankel A, Graydon-Baker E, Neppl C, Simmonds T, Gustafson
M, Gandhi
TK:Patient Safety Leadership Walk Rounds. Jt Comm J Qual
Saf 2003, 29:16-26.
Thomas E.J The effect of executive walk rounds on nurse
safety climate attitudes: A randomized trial of clinical
units.BMC Health Services
Research 2005, 5:28 doi: /