Establishing a provincial patient safety and learning system: pilot project results and lessons learned.

An effective safety event reporting system is an essential part of a comprehensive patient safety program. In British Columbia, we are implementing a provincial web-based event reporting tool and learning system called the BC Patient Safety and Learning System (PSLS). In this paper, we describe and report the results of our pilot study in a neonatal intensive care unit at BC Women's Hospital in Vancouver. Our approach aimed to foster a culture of safety by using the technology implementation to facilitate organizational learning about patient safety and to promote sustainable reporting behaviours. Results showed that PSLS was enthusiastically adopted by staff and enabled efficient reporting, promoted timely and complete follow-up activities and facilitated quality improvement. Our lessons learned laid the foundation for the provincial rollout of PSLS and may be of interest to those implementing similar systems elsewhere.

Creating a safety culture at the Children's and Women's Health Centre of British Columbia.

The Children's' and Women's Health Centre of British Columbia (C&W) is the largest hospital providing specialized care to women and children across the province of British Columbia in Canada. The values of quality and safety are threaded throughout the C&W strategic plan which emphasizes that safety is vital for better health. At C&W, a multifaceted approach is used to create and sustain a culture of safety. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) has developed tools to facilitate the development of safety cultures within hospital settings. This article describes the implementation of some of these tools, such as the Safety Briefings Model and Patient Safety Leadership Walkrounds. We will discuss how we adapted these strategies to our pediatric settings; what we learned through the implementation process-our successes and challenges; and implications for future success.