Patient Safety Culture Survey Begins Oct. 22

President Betsy Nabel, MD, at the Oct. 14 Safety Matters Quality Rounds.

Fostering a culture of patient safety and transparency is critical to BWH's mission of delivering the highest quality patient care. Next week, staff and employees whose work directly impacts patient care will have an opportunity to provide their feedback about these topics in the BWH Patient Safety Culture Survey.

 "By completing the survey, you will help us make BWH the safest possible place not only for our current patients and staff, but also for the next generation of health care professionals and patients who come through the doors of the Brigham," said BWH President Betsy Nabel, MD. "I urge you to take a few minutes to provide us with your valuable perspective."

Staff will receive an email from PascalMetrics@jangomail.com on Monday, Oct. 22, with a link to the survey. Paper surveys will be provided to departments that require them.

All responses will remain confidential. Though some questions will be specific to your work unit, hospital leadership will not be provided the individual-level results, but rather a report summarizing overall patterns of responses to ensure no employee can be identified by their answers. Participants will receive email reminders until completing the survey.

"We need and want your input so that we can improve and make changes to build a safer environment for our staff and patients," said Associate Chief Quality Officer Allen Kachalia, MD. "The survey results will help us to design future initiatives that improve safety and ensure staff feel comfortable reporting errors and speaking up when something doesn't seem right."

Nabel emphasized the hospital's commitment to patient safety and transparency during her presentation at the Oct. 14 Safety Matters Quality Rounds.

"Transparency helps us improve the delivery of care, fosters trusting relationships and enables us to support the second victims of medical errors - the care providers," said Nabel. "It's important to me that everyone knows they will be supported in reporting errors; it is the only way we can learn from them and prevent them from happening again. We owe that to our patients and to each other."

Visit BWHPikeNotes.org to view the webcast of Dr. Nabel's presentation, "The Importance of Transparency," and watch your email next week for a link to the patient safety culture survey from PascalMetrics@jangomail.com.