Patient Safety Tip
of the Week
February 27, 2018
Update on Patient
Safety Walk Rounds
Our October 7, 2014
Patient Safety Tip of the Week “Our
Take on Patient Safety Walk Rounds” discussed positive features of Patient
Safety Walk Rounds but also warned that such rounds done poorly can actually be
detrimental, especially if the rounds are perceived
as being perfunctory and feedback is not provided. We ended by stating that
measurement of the impact of these rounds can be difficult.
A new study attempts
to provide such measurement (Sexton
2017). Sexton and colleagues did a
cross-sectional survey of healthcare workers in multiple settings in the
Michigan Keystone collaborative to determine the impact of Walk Rounds (WR) on
domains such as safety culture, employee engagement, burnout and work-life
balance. Focus was on the importance of feedback.
Over 16,000 surveys
were returned, for a response rate of 70.4%. Of
those responding, 32.7% reported that they had participated in WR, and 24.3%
reported that they participated in WR with feedback. Work settings reporting
more WR with feedback had substantially higher safety culture domain scores and
significantly higher engagement scores for four of its six domains.
The researchers
found that both personal burnout and burnout climate were lowest in work
settings that had the highest rates of WR with feedback. Workforce engagement
was also clearly higher in work settings with highest rates of WR with feedback
and the highest scores in participation in decision-making and growth
opportunities. The authors tie this to the concept of “small wins”, in which “a
pattern of small wins is a series of concrete outcomes of moderate importance,
which attracts allies and deters opponents”.
The study, of course, does not prove causality. It remains conceivable that a strong culture of safety might lead to the positive results found rather than the Walk Rounds being the cause of the better culture of safety.
Sara Singer, whose work we highlighted in our October 7, 2014 Patient Safety Tip of the Week “Our Take on Patient Safety Walk Rounds”, commented in the accompanying editorial (Singer 2018). She again cautioned on the importance of doing Walk Rounds correctly and the risk of their backfiring if done improperly. She offered 3 important keys to successful Walk Rounds:
- Senior executives must publicly demonstrate clear and authentic support for the objectives of Patient Safety Walk Rounds.
- Attitudes and actions of senior executives must be institutionalized through strong project management and problem-solving infrastructure.
- Rounds should be conducted with awareness of social and contextual factors.
She makes careful reference to the role of middle managers, noting that ignoring the role of middle managers when engaging front-line workers can risk “igniting” middle managers’ fears and negative repercussions. Rather, she recommends engaging middle managers as hosts, guides, and navigators during WR. She also notes the importance of recognizing informal social networks as potential vehicles to promote positive messages.
It’s worth reiterating some of the observations and
recommendations we made in our October
7, 2014 Patient Safety Tip of the Week “Our
Take on Patient Safety Walk Rounds”:
How often
should you do Walk Rounds? Unfortunately, there are no hard and fast
guidelines. We usually recommend that each unit be visited at least every two
months, perhaps supplemented by monthly rounds done by other staff.
One bad habit
organizations have is only doing Patient Safety Walk Rounds on the day shift.
It is extremely important that you do them on all shifts. That takes
planning and commitment. Why is it important? Because two-thirds of the staff
you want to include in your safety culture work on those other shifts! Not only
do you need to convey to them your commitment to improving patient safety but
you will also better see and hear about some of the barriers to patient safety
on the evening and night shifts.
Who should be
there on Patient Safety Walk Rounds? Your core team should include your CEO,
COO, CMO, CNO, and head of Quality and Patient Safety. But there are others
that should also participate. You’ll want a pharmacist for rounds on
almost all units. Bringing your CFO on such rounds is a good way of
giving him/her a better understanding of how patient safety issues can impact
the bottom line. Your CIO may also gain valuable insights into how staff
interact with technology and many of the safety issues resulting from complex
IT issues or ones that could use an IT solution. Including representatives from
other departments (eg. engineering, housekeeping, SPD, etc.) can also bring
unique perspectives. We also recommend that you include your Board members
in Patient Safety Walk Rounds. Not every rounds, but mandate that each Board
member attend at least one walk rounds session annually. Not only will that
help educate them about patient safety but you’ll be pleasantly surprised by
the insights they bring to your rounds, either by their perspective as a
“consumer” or patient or the perspective of whatever industry they happen to
come from. For example, a banker might cringe looking at patients in line in
your antiquated patient registration system and have good ideas for improving
efficiency and patient flow. Note also that the previous Singer & Tucker
review (Singer
& Tucker 2014) mentioned the
importance of including physicians in such rounds. We wholeheartedly
agree. Almost every study done on culture of safety shows disparities between
the impressions of frontline staff and physicians (and administrators).
However, equally important is not having the physician presence stifle open
discussion of issues with staff. We’ve all too often seen situations in which
behavior of a physician is the critical safety issue and staff are unwilling to
speak about it in front of another physician, even the CMO. Lastly, some
include a patient or patient family member. A Board member might fulfill
that role but Board members may have an “insider” bias. Having an “outsider”
pair of eyes and ears may be important.
Should all those
individuals be on every Walk Rounds? Definitely not. Having too many upper
management people on rounds can be very intimidating to staff. So split them
up. Have 2-3 team members do walk rounds on one unit and others do them on
another unit or another shift. You really want to be able to interact with your
frontline staff and make them feel comfortable in speaking up.
What units
should get Walk Rounds? Answer: all of them. But some may need
particular attention, particularly those that are “melting pots” like the
Radiology suite. In our October 22, 2013 Patient Safety Tip of the Week “How
Safe Is Your Radiology Suite” we discussed the multitude of safety issues
seen in Radiology suites that have little to do with radiology per se. And
don’t forget to include non-clinical units. You’d be surprised how often your
Walk Rounds with your housekeeping department provides insights into patient
safety issues.
Remember, you are
not just doing walk rounds for show. The most important thing you can do is
identify issues and follow up. One member of each team should keep a
formal issues log that includes action items and dates for expected
actions. Timely feedback to frontline staff on actions taken for each
item is extremely important. And beware of simply telling staff “that’s been
referred to Committee X” because that often conveys the message “nothing is
going to be done”. You will encounter some items that cannot be fixed simply or
expediently. In such cases you need to be honest with your staff and tell them,
for example, that a current budgetary or technical restraint won’t allow a
quick fix (eg. “that is in the software version update to be installed in 3
months”). But at least they will know that it is still on your list. Singer
& Tucker also stress that frontline staff become frustrated when senior
management spends too much time prioritizing issues rather than taking actions.
We recommend that you use the same process for follow up that you use to ensure
actions taken when you do a Root Cause Analysis. That means you keep a list of
actions not yet completed or other “open” items and discuss these at each of
your regular Quality Improvement/Patient Safety Committee meetings until you
have closed the loop.
Body language
on Walk Rounds is extremely important. Not theirs, yours!!! The old adage that
90% of communication is nonverbal holds true. If your body language conveys
disinterest or “let’s just get this over” it won’t matter what you are saying
with your staff. They will recognize that such rounds are perfunctory. But
don’t ignore the body language of your workers either. You may notice one
worker “squirm” a bit when something is being said. In such cases, it is
worthwhile to have someone later meet that worker in a very non-threatening
setting and say “I noticed you seemed uncomfortable when so-and-so was
saying…”. You may be surprised at what you hear.
We agree with Singer
& Tucker that “surveillance” on walk rounds can be counterproductive but
that applies mainly to surveillance of people. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t
look for some unsafe conditions when doing your safety rounds. For example, if
your facility handles behavioral health patients (even if it is only in your
ER) you should be looking for things like “loopable” items in the bathrooms in
your radiology suite that might be used for suicide. Or you might check floor
stock to make sure you don’t have vials of concentrated heparin that might
mistakenly be given to patients during a heparin “flush”. Or some of the
battery charging/recharging issues we raised in our February 4, 2014 Patient
Safety Tip of the Week “But
What If the Battery Runs Low?”. And we always recommend vigilance to alarm
safety issues during Walk Rounds (see our July 2, 2013 Patient Safety Tip of
the Week “Issues
in Alarm Management”) or issues with filled and unfilled oxygen cylinders
being intermingled. Looking for all those things can be done in a less conspicuous
and non-threatening manner.
The most important
thing on Walk Rounds is encouraging staff to speak up about potential
safety issues. To do this you need a comfortable, nonpunitive culture in which
staff understand that they will be praised, not vilified, for their openness.
For example, we all know that workarounds are usually potentially
dangerous, yet they are ubiquitous. Workarounds are almost always a sign of an
underlying root cause that needs to be fixed, so identifying workarounds is
important. When you ask staff about workarounds you need to let them know you
are looking to fix whatever problem makes them do a workaround and that you are
not going to punish them for doing a workaround.
Walk Rounds are also
a good way to get a feel for safety culture on each unit. We feel you
get a much better understanding of “local (unit)” culture on such rounds than
you get on the many formal safety culture assessment tools used by many
organizations.
Lastly, how do
you measure the impact of your Walk Rounds? That, of course, is difficult
because it’s hard to separate out the results from Walk Rounds from all the
other patient safety activities your organization is doing. And surveys such as
that in the Sexton study can be expensive to administer and analyze. We think
the most important measure is looking at the issues log you accumulated through
WR and being able to report the percentage of safety issues identified and
resolved. You can also elicit informal feedback from staff on how they perceive
such rounds.
We think Patient Safety Walk Rounds are a very important component of your patient safety efforts. But be sure you do them constructively!
References:
Sexton JB, Adair KC, Leonard MW, et al Providing feedback following Leadership WalkRounds is associated with better patient safety culture, higher employee engagement and lower burnout. BMJ Qual Saf 2017; Published Online First: 09 October 2017
http://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/early/2017/10/09/bmjqs-2016-006399
Singer SJ. Successfully implementing Safety WalkRounds: secret sauce more than a magic bullet. BMJ Qual Saf 2018; Published Online First: 09 February 2018
http://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/early/2018/02/09/bmjqs-2017-007378
Singer SJ, Tucker AL. The evolving literature on safety WalkRounds: emerging themes and practical messages. BMJ Qual Saf 2014; 23: 789-800
http://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/23/10/789.full.pdf+html
Print “PDF
version”
http://www.patientsafetysolutions.com/