Safety tips: Building a better culture
Patient and employee safety on par
It takes a team to create a safe workplace – not just a committee, but an ongoing collaboration between employee health, safety, risk management, and other professionals. That is the most important advice for reducing workers' compensation claims, says Lori Severson, MS, HEM, ASP, loss control consultant with Lockton Companies of Denver.
When an injury happens, often each department reacts within their "silo" of expertise, she says. Employee health has clinical knowledge that a safety officer may lack, but the safety officer or risk manager may be more focused on identifying hazards and the root cause of an accident.
Together, they can support each other to build a culture of safety, says Severson. "I like to build a bridge between the employee health office and safety office," she says. "Together, they can look for ways to build solutions."
After years of working with health care clients to reduce injuries, Severson has developed some advice. ("Ten Steps to Enhance Healthcare Employees' Safety" is available at http://bit.ly/wY6NE1) An overriding priority: Make employee safety as important to your organization as patient safety, she says.
"We can't have patient safety without employee safety. It's really a united front," she says. "We won't have a healthy workforce if we aren't taking care of [employees] emotionally and physically. Their wellness is critical to the care on the frontline."
How do you get there? Severson emphasizes data-driven safety initiatives and improved communication. For example, employee health professionals and safety officers can recruit peer leaders to promote safety, she says.
Those informal leaders need training in hazard identification, and they should have a way to address safety concerns, she says. "That's how you empower and build a culture," she says.
To improve the safety culture, hospitals also should:
Begin the shift with a safety message. "When we start talking about safety every day at the front end, [employees] start to believe and see that their safety is as important as patient safety," Severson says. "I'm trying to equalize the importance of the two programs."
Some of her tips include:
Monitor health and safety metrics, including incidents and claims. Create a "dashboard" that allows you to easily track trends. After all, she says, what is measured is what gets attention.
Conduct safety assessments. Perform unannounced safety audits to review the effectiveness of your program and communicate your results to hospital leadership.
Cultivate champions of safety. You want your safety messages to resonate throughout the organization. Your response to incidents should avoid blame, and you should have someone with health and safety responsibilities available 24/7, she says.
The payoff of a better safety culture goes beyond cost the reduction in workers' compensation claims and premiums. Ultimately, it will result in better patient care, she says.
"Employees will want to work in that environment. They'll be an employer of choice," she says. "Patients will benefit because they have happy staff providing the care."
It takes a team to create a safe workplace not just a committee, but an ongoing collaboration between employee health, safety, risk management, and other professionals. That is the most important advice for reducing workers' compensation claims, says Lori Severson, MS, HEM, ASP, loss control consultant with Lockton Companies of Denver.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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