UChicago Medicine is one of 12 hospitals in the nation with a 26-year, Leapfrog straight-"A" streak and Stephen Weber, MD, said the secret is to never be satisfied.
"Whether I'm seeing patients or working in my administrative role, we constantly identify opportunities to provide safer care," Dr. Weber, chief medical officer and executive vice president for clinical effectiveness at UChicago, told Becker's. "While we are recognized as one of the safest hospitals in the country, we remind ourselves that hospitals remain inherently risky places. Our mindset is one of intolerance toward potential risks and maintaining not just vigilance, but a certain level of dissatisfaction with our current performance, is crucial — even when we are performing at the highest levels."
UChicago has two main initiatives that have helped it maintain its high safety ratings.
The first is called the Frontline First program, what UChicago calls a proactive approach to getting feedback from those at the bedside. Anyone in contact with patients, regardless of role, is encouraged to share their observations for improvement.
"The foundation of all safety initiatives lies at the bedside, in the clinics and in the ED," Dr. Weber said. "The true heroes are the frontline caregivers making the right choices every day and putting patients first. Our role is simply to support them in delivering the safest care possible."
The second initiative is UChicago's executive risk and safety committee.
"Most health systems conduct rigorous root cause analyses to investigate safety events," Dr. Weber said. "What we've done is take that process a step further by creating a root-cause analysis of the root-cause analyses."
The monthly meeting brings together different leaders, providers and practitioners to review all root-cause analyses and asks one question: "Are we satisfied that the work plan from this analysis will have the desired impact?"
"This added layer of scrutiny ensures a higher level of safety beyond accreditation standards and what most organizations typically do," Dr. Weber said. "It's an extra level of protection and confidence."
The committee allows leaders to dive deeper and draw connections between different safety events. For example, Dr. Weber said the staff may identify a link between a patient's fall and a bloodstream infection, which points to larger issues in culture, supervision, communication or expectation.
"This approach helps us see patterns and address root causes from a broader perspective," he said.
There has never been a meeting without leaders identifying a new thread to explore, and the issues are ever-changing. What was identified two or three years ago is not the same as what the committee is identifying now.
"That's exactly how it should be — continuously peeling back layers to get to the root root causes, refining our approach and driving ongoing improvement," Dr. Weber said.