Person Safety

The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety recently published findings from a symposium that focused on "person safety", which is defined as safety for staff, patients, visitors and everyone that enters the facility. Not only is it important to have a safe environment for our patients, it is important that the health care environment is safe for everyone else. Health care workers are at higher risk for nonfatal occupational illness or injury than miners or construction workers. Some of the strategies to enhance "person safety" also correlate with a culture of safety and include:

• Everyone should be considered a caregiver, as all roles contribute to patient outcomes
• Daily unit huddles should be held to identify safety concerns, with participation from all staff
• All organizational meetings should begin with a safety story, to engage and connect to purpose
• Senior leaders should regularly round in their areas
• All current metrics for injuries to staff and patients should be posted on the hospital intranet
• All employees should have safety goals in their performance appraisal.