By the Center for Patient Safety
The Center for Patient Safety will launch its Safety Culture Assessment for EMS agencies later this month at the Pinnacle EMS Leadership Forum, an annual EMS leadership conference held in Phoenix this year. Recognizing the need for EMS agencies to continuously improve their safety culture while understanding the challenge of knowing how to get started, CPS developed the Safety Culture Assessment specifically for this market.
Historically, EMS has lacked sufficient safety data to measure agency progress in this important area. CPS seeks to improve that deficit through the use of an assessment, which provides EMS agencies with a quantifiable snapshot in time of their safety culture. This affordable option measures an agency’s strengths, opportunities, how they compare to others and how to prioritize next steps.
Since EMS agencies tend to develop their own subcultures, having a benchmark that leaders can use to provide perspective on the health of their safety culture is a valuable component of what the assessment offers.
Aggregating EMS data for benchmark statistics
“The Center for Patient Safety was fortunate to partner with the National Registry of EMTs to develop the questions for this assessment, which have undergone extensive testing to ensure they are relevant and appropriate,” shared Lee Varner, Patient Safety Director at CPS. “The Registry surveyed its registrants and received over 32,000 responses, which serve as valuable provider level data. CPS will now gather agency-level data, which will allow for benchmarking so that agencies can understand how they are doing in comparison to national averages and to organizations of similar size and type,” he added.
CPS keeps all assessment results confidential, allowing the agency to control how much information is revealed. Instead, data gleaned is aggregated to continually build upon their benchmark statistics.
“We truly partner with EMS leaders throughout the assessment process – letting them know how many responses they have received during our window of gathering feedback and then scheduling a consult with them once that window has closed to walk them through the results, answer questions, and provide counsel on how to present those findings to their team. Our assessment is really the first step in an agency’s journey to improve culture and reduce preventable harm,” said Varner.
Now available to become part of your agency’s patient safety plan and strategy, the assessment will be offered to Pinnacle attendees at a special rate.
About the author
The Center for Patient Safety is committed to improving safety for both patients and providers. A national not-for-profit organization, CPS serves both EMS and hospitals with a mission to reduce preventable harm. Its latest tool for EMS, a Safety Culture Assessment, provides agencies with an opportunity to benchmark and improve. Find the Center on Facebook and Twitter @PtSafetyExpert.