Team Performance And Patient Safety Initiatives - 1305 Words

Team Performance and Patient Safety Initiatives Patient safety and quality care is the center of every health care provider’s initiatives. According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report â€Å"To Err is Human†, adverse events and medical errors happen at an alarming rate with approximately 400,000 deaths a year (Epps Levin, 2015). An evidence-based practice, team strategies and tools to enhance performance and patient safety (TeamSTEPPS), is a comprehensive program that brings staff together to train and enhance patient safety initiatives (Epps Levin, 2015). The purpose of this paper is to determine the tools teams use to improve patient safety while incorporating teams’ strategies to provide quality care and how this applies to the†¦show more content†¦These elements, when put to proper use, will create an environment of teamwork, reduced medical errors, and positive patient outcomes. Leadership can support a TeamSTEPPS approach to improving patient safety and quality of care. Through financial assistance, communication effort, and a commitment to providing high-quality training to all disciplines, organizations can support the directives in TeamSTEPPS (Ward, Zhu Lampman, 2013). Team leadership is a key core competency of the Team STEPPS approach to promoting quality and preventing errors (Clancy Tornberg, 2007). Team leaders must be adept at motivating, creating a positive environment, assess performance, and creating opportunities for education and skill development (Clancy Tornberg, 2007). Partnering with a member of senior leadership is an additional strategy for increasing performance and patient safety (AHRQ, 2012). Specific strategies the senior leader can adopt are to meet with the team on a regular basis to identify and remove barriers to project success. They can accomplish this by allocating needed resources, facilitating interdepartmental communication, which increases project awareness and support at the executive level (AHRQ, 2012). The multidisciplina ry staff including physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals must work together as a team to provide