Building a culture of safety: an ongoing journey

Our culture of safety and desire for continuous improvement is foundational to who we are. Accountability guides our interactions with one another and the children and families we serve.

In recent years, Solutions for Patient Safety (SPS) training and tools have been a guidepost for our practice and journey in improving quality. During 2021, associates continued completion of the SPS Safety Improvement Bundle across the domains of safety governance, error prevention training and cause analysis, which is strengthening our abilities to make progress on our goals.

“If I have a concern or notice an error, I should speak up. I know I will be supported.”

Nemours Children’s associate, SPS training participant

What began in 2020, and was operationalized in 2021, was moving beyond goalsetting and actively implementing strategies to reduce and prevent infections. Using SPS training, we achieved our ambitious goal of a 10% reduction for both central line blood stream infections (CLABSI) and surgical site infections (SSI) year-to-date with CLABSIs down from 36 to 30 and SSIs down from 16 to 14. Catheter-associated urinary tract infections were down from a three-year average of nine per year to a total of six in 2021. Practically speaking, that means we prevented harm to seven children who did not experience a CLABSI (3) or SSI (4) in 2021. Each of these infections would have harmed an individual child, required more care, added hospital days, and increased the costs of care.

Equally important, we saw a reduction in the variation of our outcomes month-to-month, which signals that our processes are improving and we are delivering care much more consistently — we know we’re on the right track.

Practically speaking, we prevented harm to seven children who did not experience a CLABSI or SSI in 2021, avoiding unnecessary stress for families and costs of care.

2021 Highlight