News
Safety huddles become important part of Hollywood Private Hospital culture
Jun 20, 2022
Safety huddles have become an important part of the culture at Hollywood Private Hospital, with improved planning, communications and morale since they were introduced last year.
Safety huddles are a short, stand-up informal meeting with multidisciplinary teams and are generally held at the beginning of a shift. They help team members work cohesively to deliver high quality patient care.
They were rolled out across all clinical areas at Hollywood during 2021 and have made a big impact, according to Clinical Risk and Quality Manager, Suzanne Craigie.
“Staff and clinical managers have provided feedback that safety huddles have reinforced our safety culture by streamlining communication and encouraging effective planning,” Ms Craigie said.
“They have provided a daily forum for staff to raise concerns & put action plans in place for patient and staff safety.”
Safety huddles involve:
- Looking back – what was done well in the past 24 hours and what could be improved.
- Looking forward – focus on safety. Any patient and/or staff concerns discussed.
- Planning – assigning responsibilities.
Research shows that safety huddles are an efficient communication technique for teams to share information, identify concerns, collaborate and effectively engage team members. 1
Ms Craigie said safety huddles had become an integral part of Hollywood’s communicating for safety standard.
“’Speak Up For Patient Safety’ is a program to empower employees to promote patient safety,” Ms Craigie said.
“The aim of the program is to provide a platform to ensure staff maintain high professional standards across the organisation.
“Safety huddles give the whole team a voice and encourage staff to speak up.”
A 2020 study found that daily safety huddles are a powerful tool to create an equitable environment where frontline staff could speak up freely about safety.2 Safety Huddles lead to more open and active discussions, enhancing the ability of staff to perform the right action at the right time.2
As well as the safety benefits, Ms Craigie said safety huddles were good for morale.
“Safety huddles have been embraced by staff,” Ms Craigie said.
“The Angiography Suite even sound a cow bell to indicate the safety huddle is starting.”
Hollywood Private Hospital operates under Ramsay Health Care’s Patient Safety and Clinical Quality Framework, which is designed to produce reliable, safe and effective outcomes.
Ramsay Health Care National Infection Prevention & Control coordinator, Sue Greig, said in the current increased awareness to risks associated with respiratory infections (COVID-19 and seasonal influenza) health care workers are maintaining initiatives that improve clinical safety whilst maintaining safety with use of PPE.
1 Shaikh, Ulfat. Improving Patient Safety and Team Communication through Daily Huddles, Patient Safety Network, 2020: 12. https://psnet.ahrq.gov/primer/improving-patient-safety-and-team-communication-through-daily-huddles
2 Aldawood, Fatima, et al. Enhancing teamwork communication and patient safety responsiveness in a paediatric intensive care unit using the daily safety huddle tool, BMJ Journals. 2020; 9(1): 4. https://bmjopenquality.bmj.com/content/9/1/e000753
A safety huddle in one of the wards at Hollywood Private Hospital.