Joint Commission journal on quality and patient safety / Joint Commission Resources
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Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf · Jun 2010
Impact of the Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP) on safety culture in a surgical inpatient unit.
A culture of teamwork and learning from mistakes are universally acknowledged as essential factors to improve patient safety. Both are part of the Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP), which improved safety in intensive care units but had not been evaluated in other inpatient settings. ⋯ Improvements were observed in safety climate, teamwork climate, and nurse turnover rates on a surgical inpatient unit after implementing a safety program. As part of the CUSP process, staff described safety hazards and then as a team designed and implemented several interventions. CUSP is sufficiently structured to provide a strategy for health care organizations to improve culture and learn from mistakes, yet is flexible enough for units to focus on risks that they perceive as most important, given their context. Broad use of this program throughout health systems could arguably produce substantial improvements in patient safety.
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Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf · Jun 2010
An implementation strategy for a multicenter pediatric rapid response system in Ontario.
A rapid response system using a medical emergency team was implemented across four pediatric hospitals in Ontario, Canada, in a social marketing approach.
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Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf · Jun 2010
Evolution of a rapid response system from voluntary to mandatory activation.
A policy requiring rapid response activation for all patients who met physiologic instability criteria, which was initiated four years after the rapid response system's inception, significantly increased the number of rapid response calls and was associated with a reduction in cardiorespiratory arrests outside of critical care areas.
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Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf · Jun 2010
Editorial CommentRapid response systems: a mandatory system of care or an optional extra for bedside clinical staff.
Two articles in this issue describe different approaches to implementing a rapid response system--one approach involving a wide-ranging marketing plan, the other entailing a policy change to make activation mandatory.