March 11, 2016
Pittsburgh, PA – 11 March 2016: “Ethics” may not be the first word you associate with “Patient Safety,” but at ICBioethics, the two concepts are inseparable. To emphasize this connection, the company has embarked on several activities to show this relationship to healthcare workers, to administrators, and to patients during Patient Safety Awareness Week (PSAW), an initiative of the National Patient Safety Foundation® (NPSF). This year PSAW runs from March 13‑19.
“Healthcare ethics, when effectively integrated into the organization’s culture, show up in multiple areas and benefit all, but some believe that the responsibilities for building a culture of ethics reside within Patient Safety, Compliance, and Organizational Development instead of across the entire organization,” stated ICBioethics CEO, Dr. Kathy Detar Gennuso. “Essentially, improving patient safety must be more than monitoring to be sure medical errors are avoided. It must become part of an overall healthcare ethic within the organization. It’s an organizational transformation that must unite organizational leaders, physicians, the extended healthcare teams, and patients – it takes the right tools, the right attitude, and a willingness to employ a systems approach that is able to affect the underpinnings of that organization’s culture. It truly takes a collaborative effort. That’s why we couldn’t be happier that the National Patient Safety Foundation selected the theme “United for Patient Safety” for the 2016 Patient Safety Awareness Week.”
Stories about patient safety are in the news every day. Usually they are in the context of where things went wrong. ICBioethics has published blogs related to patient safety in the past, but as part of its activities leading to PSWA, the company is publishing two that more explicitly address the topic. The February blog topic is “Creating a Culture of Patient Safety is Continuous, Collaborative Process.” Its author, Leah Jeunnette, ICBioethics’ Manager of Ethics Content and Ph.D. Candidate at Duquesne University, commented, “The blog deals with the story of surgery performed on the wrong infant. While there are a slew of ethical issues surrounding that alone, the problem is complicated by the way in which the doctor addressed that problem. Our goal is to prevent this type of behavior by working with our clients to provide training that helps their staff and their contractual workers avoid errors and keep patients safer – proactively, that is, before judgment errors lead to disastrous outcomes.”
ICBioethics is also teaming with BioethxChat™ on an upcoming Twitter chat. The chat moderator, Jennifer Chevinsky, is a fourth-year medical student within the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine SELECT program who will be continuing on to complete her residency training in preventive medicine. Jennifer, whose background in bioethics includes internships at Georgetown Center for Clinical Bioethics, Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics, UNESCO, Schlesinger Institute, and Oxford University’s Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics explained, “It’s been a little while since we’ve hosted a chat on the topic of patient safety, so the 2016 Patient Safety Awareness Week seemed the perfect opportunity to revisit the topic. We have a group of loyal followers who represent a wide variety of professions and interests and who are eager to exchange ideas on topics like patient safety. Other recent topics have included The Ethics of Uterine Transplants, Patient Charts and Ethics, and Caregiving Ethics.” The @BioethxChat is open to the public through the hashtag #bioethx on twitter every Monday night at 8:30 PM Eastern Time. The patient safety topic is scheduled for March 14.
“Partnering on the Twitter chat is just one of the ways we are engaging with the healthcare community and patients on the important topic of patient safety,” said Dr. Gennuso. “We are hosting our first webinar, “Keeping Patients Safe Starts with Commitment to Building a Culture of Patient-Centered Care,” on Friday, March 18, at noon Eastern Time. “We’ll be discussing how patient rights are the foundation of patient safety and that developing and maintaining a culture committed to protecting those rights is integral to providing patient-centered care. We want people to understand specifically how this can be accomplished by looking below the surface and strengthening their organizational underpinnings, their commitment, and their explicit communications – simplified by using the right automation tools and a commitment to employing an effective systems approach to turn their culture around and build from there. Anyone interested in registering for the webinar can do so at the company’s website link: bit.ly/PS-webinar. ICBioethics plans to make a reply available. Information about that will appear at the same website after the webinar concludes.
About ICBioethics
The Institute of Consultative Bioethics (ICBioethics) is a provider of comprehensive, customizable, knowledge delivery software and coaching/consulting services that support health care and other highly regulated industries, as well as academic organizations that train professionals. ICBioethics was recently awarded a Pittsburgh Business Ethics Award. For more information, visit icbioethics.com.