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Video by Amber Martinez Llanes

Leadership Engagement Toolkit: Medical Leaders Build Patient Safety Structures: the Basics

Defense Health Agency - E&T

April 22, 2017 | 8:23

High reliability organizations follow one of the oldest principals of health care, “First, do no harm.” They believe that eliminating harm and maximizing benefits, enables better care and better health as well as improved efficiency and readiness. To help put this and other high reliability guiding principles into practice, the Military Health System assembled a set of evidence-based strategies called the Leadership Engagement Toolkit.

One specific strategy built upon the principle of do no harm is Building Patient Safety Structures. Leadership, including medical staff leaders, ensures the engagement of the physician body as partners with hospital executives and staff in building patient safety structures. These efforts are concurrent with the ongoing development of a safety culture that is designed to identify opportunities for reducing harm.

We encourage you to consider how you can use this and other leadership engagement practices to eliminate preventable harm, moving your organization one step closer towards becoming a high reliability organization.