Patient safety rounds in a pediatric tertiary care center

Area of Science:

• Pediatric healthcare quality improvement
• Patient safety research
• Healthcare management

Background:

• Patient safety rounds were introduced in a pediatric tertiary care setting.
• Analysis included three years of general pediatric safety rounds and nine months of pediatric surgical safety rounds.
• Completed issues were categorized using Modified Vincent and University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC) schemes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze completed patient safety issues identified through safety rounds.
• To compare categorization attributes using two different classification schemes.
• To evaluate the reception and effectiveness of pediatric safety rounds.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of 159 completed patient safety issues from January 2003 to January 2006.
• Categorization of issues using the Modified Vincent and UHC classification systems.
• Assessment of staff and executive reception to the safety rounds initiative.

Main Results:

• The majority of issues (93%) originated from general pediatric safety rounds.
• UHC scheme: 35.8% care coordination/records, 27.0% equipment safety, 21.4% equipment/supplies/devices.
• Modified Vincent scheme: 63.5% environmental factors, 23.3% team factors.
• Pediatric safety rounds were positively received by staff and executives.

Conclusions:

• Pediatric safety rounds are a valuable, low-cost patient safety improvement tool.
• The initiative effectively partners senior leadership with frontline staff.
• This approach enhances patient safety within pediatric healthcare environments.