Working to address communication issues, improve teamwork for rapid response calls, decrease length of stay and prevent medication errors, Security Forces Hospital in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, first conducted a survey on patient safety culture from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Based on identified areas for improvement, the hospital began a comprehensive TeamSTEPPS implementation.

Background

  • Established in 2013 by the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Interior to serve the western region of the country.
  • After hospital’s Patient Safety Supervisor Dr. Muhammad Eltawansi attended a TeamSTEPPS Master Training course in 2016, formed a change team to apply training in the hospital.
  • In 2018, implemented TeamSTEPPS to enhance patient safety culture and reduce clinical errors.
Security Forces Hospital

Download Success Story

 

Approach & Goals

  • Identifying opportunities for improvement in teamwork and formulating a vision for TeamSTEPPS implementation.
  • Providing TeamSTEPPS training to 350-plus hospital employees.
  • Sustaining education and training by regularly monitoring and measuring the program’s effectiveness and offering refresher training sessions.
  • The core change team was formulated with the following members: Dr. Muhammad Eltawansi, Patient Safety Supervisor and Project leader; Dr. Mohamed Emam, Quality Manager; Dr. Ahmed Elsheikh, Quality and Patient Safety Director; and Dr. Khalid Alzahrani, Deputy Program Director General.

Actions Taken

  • By end of 2023, had used TeamSTEPPS to train more than 240 hospital caregivers.
  • Measures training effectiveness through rounding, occurrence variance reporting and conducting periodic surveys.
  • Customizes TeamSTEPPS to match hospital teams’ processes and make training more interactive; delivers training in different lengths and formats to meet audience need.

Positive Outcomes

  • Showed improvement in nine composite measures of patient safety culture in AHRQ survey.
  • Increased the overall patient safety grade from 57% in 2015 to 89% in 2022.
  • Decreased pediatric intensive care unit length of stay from 5.8 to 2.3 days.
  • In operating rooms, improved communication and increased administration of properly timed prophylactic antibiotics prior to incision to 100%.
  • Decreased percentage of medical imaging reporting that exceeds 48 hours from 21.4% to 4.14%.

Recommendations

  • Readiness assessment and vision casting are essential first steps.
  • The support of top management is key.
  • Have a strong plan with practical steps for sustainment.
 
|