In the intricate landscape of healthcare, patient safety stands as a paramount concern. Ensuring the well-being of patients requires a multifaceted approach, one that transcends departmental boundaries and fosters collaboration among various stakeholders. Advocate Health, a leading healthcare institution, exemplifies this collaborative spirit in its journey toward integrated risk management. 

Elsie Lindgren, Vice President of Patient Safety at Advocate Health, sheds light on the pivotal role collaboration plays in advancing patient safety initiatives. She emphasizes the importance of breaking down silos and working together across departments to address the complex challenges inherent in healthcare risk management. 

At the heart of Advocate Health's approach lies a set of guiding principles rooted in high reliability principles. These principles serve as a compass, guiding teams towards a shared vision of patient safety excellence. By integrating high reliability principles into every facet of its operations, Advocate Health ensures that patient safety remains a top priority across all departments. 

Zoom In, Zoom Out: Flexibility Is Paramount 

Lindgren elaborates on the guiding principles, highlighting their practical application in day-to-day operations. By fostering a culture of continuous improvement and open communication, Advocate Health empowers frontline staff to identify and mitigate risks proactively across a spectrum of areas. The flexibility in reporting enables staff to step back and see throughlines from a thousand-foot vantage point or quickly and effectively dig into minutiae when targeted insights are needed.  

One such shared example: Lindgren shares the simplicity in drilling down to answer questions such as “how many pediatric urology stents stayed in past discharge or for lengthy periods of time”. On the other hand, zooming out and identifying more multi-disciplinary challenges across the health system: the ability to identify trending issues that occur in transferring a patient between units.  

Reducing Noise: Creating Space to Think 

A key aspect of Advocate Health's risk management strategy is the seamless integration of data across different departments. Elsie underscores the importance of reducing redundancy and streamlining processes to enhance efficiency while reducing error risk.  

By utilizing a unified reporting platform, Advocate Health fosters cross-departmental collaboration and empowers data-driven decisions. Through rigorous planning and comprehensive stakeholder engagement, the Origami platform has been tailored to support the resilient enterprise-wide risk management infrastructure and continuous improvement that Advocate Health’s teams are striving for.  

Advocate Health's journey serves as a testament to the transformative power of collaboration across departments in healthcare risk management.  

As healthcare organizations navigate the complexities of risk management, they can draw inspiration from Advocate Health's collaborative approach and commitment to patient-centered care. 

• Collaboration drives patient safety: Advocate Health emphasizes breaking down silos and fostering collaboration among stakeholders to address complex challenges in healthcare risk management, making patient safety a shared responsibility across departments. 

• Guiding principles ensure focus: Rooted in high reliability principles, Advocate Health's guiding principles serve as a compass for prioritizing a culture of safety and continuous improvement in all operations. 

• Integrated data and technology: Leveraging flexible and comprehensive technology, seamless data integration unifies departments, streamlining processes, improving collaboration, and driving innovation in managing safety events.  

By emphasizing collaboration, breaking down silos, and fostering a culture of safety, Advocate Health ensures that patient well-being remains at the forefront of its operations. Guided by high reliability principles and supported by integrated data and technology, Advocate Health sets a standard for excellence in patient safety and continuous improvement. As healthcare organizations navigate the complexities of risk management, they can draw inspiration from this collaborative approach and commitment to patient-centered care, ultimately driving toward a future where patient safety is a shared responsibility and a top priority across all departments.

Find the full conversation with Lindgren in Tackling Patient Safety and Quality Management Challenges: An Integrated Approach.