Culture of Safety Survey

By Dr. Greg McAuliffe, Chief Medical Officer

“Primum non nocere” . That is a Latin term that literally means “Above all do no harm”.  It  was, and remains, the fundamental medical precept of the delivery of healthcare as laid out by Hippocrates almost 2,500 years ago.  The safe care of our patients is indeed the number one goal of San Luis Valley Health.  Providing that care in a very complex environment of changing technology can be challenging.  Studies show that roughly 30% of hospitalized patients have something happen to them that neither you or I would want to happen to us.  Of those patients, 6% result in a prolonged hospital stay, temporary disability, or even permanent disability.  This is NOT the care we want to deliver at San Luis Valley Health.  We want our culture around safety to be built around several  pillars:

• Patient & Family Centered Care
• Strong clinical and senior leadership
• Effective teamwork
• A very high level of professionalism and just culture
• Provide the psychological safety of our entire team to participate
• Reliable processes of care
• A system that values learning and improvement from our errors

So what does this have to do with a culture of safety survey you ask?  Everything.  This survey tells us where we stand in becoming an organization that holds ourselves accountable in doing our very best to avoid all harm to patients.  It helps us focus on those areas where we can improve on behalf of our patients.  Everyone at San Luis Valley Health plays a role in safety.  Please help SLV Health by participating in the survey this month!

San Luis Valley Health will be conducting our Culture of Safety survey March 9th-20th.  Clinical staff will be receiving an email invitation with directions on how to complete the survey.  We are striving for 100% participation!