Ramsay Sime Darby Health Care launches speak up for patient safety programme

RAMSAY SIME DARBY HEALTH CARE LAUNCHES SPEAK UP FOR PATIENT SAFETY PROGRAMME

OCT 15, 2019 @ 10.51AM

Dato' Dr Jacob Thomas, Chairman of the Board & Group Medical Adviser, Ramsay Sime Darby Health Care join in the rest at the cake cutting ceremony to celebrate the launch of Speak Up for Patient Safety programme.

Ramsay Sime Darby Health Care (RSDHC) has officially launched the Speak Up for Patient Safety (SUFPS) programme across its portfolio of healthcare assets in Malaysia to strengthen its reporting culture and help safeguard patients.

RSDHC is committed to addressing behaviours by doctors or staff that would undermine a culture of safety and quality. At this end, RSDHC is piloting the Vanderbilt Promoting Professional Accountability Programme across all its hospitals in Malaysia and Indonesia. The Vanderbilt programme is based on the proven philosophy that when a person is given feedback on their behaviour, in 70% of cases they will not repeat their behaviour in the next 12 months.

This programme empowers and encourages employees to speak up in the moment they see any colleagues, including senior colleagues who they believe is exhibiting behaviour that may put a patient at risk and promotes professional accountability which includes a confidential reporting avenue about unsafe behaviour without fear of reprisal.

This organisation-wide programme aims to overcome entrenched hierarchical behaviours that can contribute to unintended patient harm. It builds and embeds a culture of safety and quality by normalising collegiate two-way communication between staff to support each other and speak up any time there is a concern for patient safety.

World Patient Safety Day
Patient safety echoed by The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared September 17 as the first World Patient Safety Day as it deems it a global health priority.

According to WHO, globally, 134 million adverse events occur each year due to unsafe care in hospitals in low- and middle-income countries, contributing to 2.6 million deaths annually; 15% of hospital expenses can be attributed to treating patient safety failures in OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries); 4 out of 10 patients are harmed in the primary and ambulatory settings; up to 80% of harm in these settings can be avoided.

WHO further adds that investments in reducing patient harm can lead to significant financial savings, better patient outcomes and data suggests that it can reduce the burden of harm by 15%.

The programme addresses, in a positive way, any behaviour which undermines a culture of safety through peer to peer conversations and equipping employees with assertiveness training. Elements of the scheme include graded assertiveness training for all staff and a feedback platform for staff to report both positive and negative experiences, all of which equip staff with the confidence to speak up for safety.

Using trained peer messengers, staff are made aware of concerns about their behaviour in a non-judgemental way. The training provides the staff to feel confident about raising concerns, about starting conversations with other employees and their supervisors if they have concerns about patient safety.

The training uses the PACE model which enables one to gradually escalate communication:

P – Probe
A – Alert
C - Challenge
E – Emergency

“Planning and development of the programme commenced late last year with a major focus on informing, educating and engaging key stakeholder groups and one of the biggest hospital-wide training undertaken by RSDHC”, said Erin Lloyd, Group Head of Nursing, Quality & Risk Management of Ramsay Sime Darby Health Care Group.

“Prior to the launch, employees and doctors have received training and information about the programme, in ensuring they understand how the system works and providing them tools to address issues that arise in day-to-day situations” added Erin.

This innovative and evidence-based programme is based on the highly successful and proven approach developed 25 years ago by Vanderbilt University (USA). It is the first time the Vanderbilt programme has been implemented by a private hospital in Malaysia.

RAMSAY SIME DARBY HEALTH CARE LAUNCHES SPEAK UP FOR PATIENT SAFETY PROGRAMME

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