How Reliable is Our Care?

As I write this blog, we are a couple of hours into our triennial unannounced Joint Commission survey at GBMC. Think of it as a checkup. The surveyors are going to check to see how reliable our care is.

I was thinking back to 2011, when I first touched on the concept of reliability in this blog:  http://ahealthydialogue.blogspot.com/2011/03/best-way-should-be-only-way.html. To reduce the concept to its simplest definition, reliability means “what should happen happens and what should not happen….doesn’t.” To get to very high reliability, or error rates close to zero, an organization must find the potential causes of failure, the so-called “holes in the Swiss Cheese”, before they can line up to cause a miss, that might lead to patient or staff harm. Being vigilant about filling in those “holes” is also called preoccupation with failure. Are we zealously looking for problems and fixing them when we find them?  When we see people drifting from our designs for safety are we calling it out or are we looking the other way? We know we are not perfect but it’s good to have outside eyes looking at our processes and to see just how reliable we have become and where we can still improve.

During LDM this morning, I learned of a phenomenal success that took place in Family Care Associates, one of our patient-centered medical homes, on Tuesday. They received 271 phone calls and answered every one within their 20-second standard! This is an incredible accomplishment after having implemented the phone call redesign that was created during the recent Kaizen led by our Lean facilitator, Farrukh Kidwai. What should happen…the phone gets answered efficiently…happened without a failure! An example of a 100% reliable process! Congratulations to Family Care Associates for achieving the President’s Four Aim Recognition. Family Care is now the third advanced primary care practice, along with Owings Mills and Hunt Manor to have implemented the new standard design for telephone calls.

National Physician Assistant Week
Please join me in celebrating all GBMC physician assistants (PAs). This week is National PA Week (Oct. 6-12) and is a time when PAs celebrate their profession and showcase the value they bring to today’s healthcare team.

The physician assistants at GBMC practice in many areas from the outpatient offices to the inpatient units in a wide variety of specialties. A PA is a nationally certified and state-licensed medical professional who begin their careers with rigorous education in a highly competitive field.  Upon completion of a bachelor’s degree, prospective students must then attend an intense three-year program and complete at least 2,000 hours of supervised clinical practice.  They then must pass the Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam (PANCE), which is administered by the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA).

Please join me in thanking our PA’s for their hard work and for their important role in caring for our patients.

2017 Healthcare Security and Safety Week
I want to thank all the members of our GBMC security staff as this week is Healthcare Safety and Security Week (Oct. 9-15).

The GBMC security team can be seen walking or stationed throughout our medical center from the emergency department to labor and delivery. Our security and safety officers meet the challenge every day to keep all of us safe at GBMC. They are vital members of the healthcare team and we cannot be successful without them.

Please join me in thanking our security staff for their hard work and for their strong commitment and the diligence they display in the practice of their profession.

Help Support The Joseph Richey House
Later this month employees, volunteers, and patients will be participating in the Baltimore Running Festival and fundraising for GBMC HealthCare's Gilchrist Center Baltimore – Joseph Richey House.

Gilchrist Hospice has helped so many individuals and families through the end of life.  The Gilchrist team not only delivers world-class medical care to patients in their final days, but they also provide the emotional and spiritual support needed through the bereavement process. One of the founding principles of the Joseph Richey House is to provide services to everyone, regardless of their ability to pay. Joseph Richey is a 19-bed residential hospice designed to care for terminally-ill patients and serves 150 of these individuals each year, 80 percent of which are Baltimore City residents. The GBMC system and our community are very lucky to have Gilchrist to help individuals complete their lives with dignity and on their terms.

I want to thank all of our employees, volunteers, patients and supporters of GBMC Healthcare who are running during the Festival and helping to raise awareness of the great work at Joseph Richey.

Unfortunately, registration for running to support the Joseph Richey House is closed, BUT, you can help still support RunGBMC in other ways. Please consider being a volunteer the day of the race, by contacting Morgan Cook at MCOOK@gbmc.org or click here to join us in raising money for The Joseph Richey House and giving back to our community. Thank you!