The Women’s and Children’s service line has the opportunity to become the first Service Line Model Cell, i.e. the place where Be Safe is incorporated fully into the daily work flow across the continuum of care. This effort has been named The Families First Initiative.
As a team member supporting the care of our patients, you will be asked to help support this important effort, which benefits the patients and families we serve. We ask that you work to align your teams and priorities with those of the health system while ensuring accountability to this effort. Our Service Line leadership recently developed and approved expectations for all team members with regards to “Families First.” Some of you may have already received these in the mail. Many will be getting these expectations within the next couple of weeks. Although expectations will depend upon your role in the Service Line, there are several things that everyone will be expected to understand and support on this journey.
- Be knowledgeable about Lean methodology and problem solving tools and language. The Be Safe Learning Library is packed with videos and powerpoints of the fundamentals of Be Safe. In addition, there is a library of “Standard Work” that has been developed across the hospital as well as other educational material and templates. If you hear someone throwing out some language about Be Safe and don’t know what they are talking about, this is a good location to start educating yourself.
- Participate in active problem solving. Every team member should feel comfortable calling out issues that may lead to a safety event or decrease quality of care. The Be Safe Event reporting system is located on every computer in the hospital. It is your duty to help us find systems issues that need addressing. Other ways you can participate include gathering perishable information when an event occurs, participate in huddles/debriefings, A3s or work groups.
- Support other team members participating in Model Cell activities. When your team member colleagues are participating in Be Safe activities, help them out. This might mean covering some of their patients in clinic, taking pager call, or simply supporting them verbally and emotionally.
- Know where to find and how to use the tools to problem solve. Again, please use the Be Safe Learning Library to your advantage.
- Know when and how to escalate issues and/or activate the Help Chain. The “Help Chain” is how to advance issues that you cannot take care of immediately or without help/resources. Issues that can be solved immediately do not necessarily need the Help Chain. However, when these issues do arise that cannot be solved immediately, there is always someone available to provide direction or find resources.
- Know who the appropriate contact within the Help Chain is when needed. Within the inpatient hospital, this is likely the Unit Manager or Medical Director. In the ambulatory setting, Floor Leads in addition to Nurse Managers can help you. Within a few weeks, we hope to have an organizational chart available as a resource for across the Service Line.
- Support orienting new team members to Be Safe methodology. New hires are provided information on Be Safe, however, there is nothing like learning from your new colleagues. This is especially important in developing the culture of safety the Service Line aspires to.
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