Now we want you to think about how other organisations approach patient safety and what you may be able to learn from them. There is no one right way of course, but here is a brief example from a couple of organisations . You may well have other examples that provide food for thought.

The International perspective: The Virginia Mason Medical Centre

A unique approach to patient safety

For this activity you may find it helpful to read the following resources:

Chapter 4 - Safety Crusade from Transforming Health Care, which provides the compelling narrative for change, and Glasgow et al (2012)which gives a more academic view of why Virginia Mason (and others) are experiencing some level of success in their approach to improving patient safety.

The Virginia Mason Medical Center (VMMC) 

The Virginia Mason Medical Center (VMMC) provides an integrated healthcare system across nine locations in the USA, including a 336-bedhospital. It is a not-for-profit organisation which employs over 5,000 staff, 500 of whom are physicians. It has developed a reputation forimproving patient safety.

The following screens describe a small aspect of their organisational development approach, which is based on lean methodology.

In 2000, the VMMC were facing a number of issues, many of which are widespread issues in health and social care services, including:

• concerns about patient outcomes
• retention of the best staff
• suboptimal quality of healthcare in a significant number of cases.

How many of these apply to your Trust or health and social care organisation ?

Virginia Mason adopted an organisational development approach which included a wide range of actions designed to bring about significantchange. They agreed a pact between clinicians and the organisation, recognising that clinicians deliver the vision for the
organisation, and the organisation needs to support them accordingly.

Virginia Mason Strategic Plan

Their strategic plan created a new focus on patient quality. The patient is placed above everything else; and they created a visual reminder that everything they do is to improve the patient experience. The VMMC puts the patient first in all thinking; operations are designed to enhance the overall experience of the patient.