Healthcare ALERTBULLETIN® A Risk Management Update | 2025 Issue 3
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Nearly three decades ago, a safety-focused movement took root in the healthcare industry, helping to raise awareness of both the extent of medical errors and the systemic, process-related issues that contribute to poor patient/client outcomes.
According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRO), reducing errors in healthcare settings requires a top-down commitment to creating and maintaining a safety culture. Such a culture is characterized by a set of safety-centered values, beliefs and norms, which is shared by everyone in the healthcare setting and shapes their behaviors and interactions. (For resources, strategies and tools designed to foster a culture of safety, visit the AHRO website.)
One of the hallmarks of a safety culture is the notion of teamwork. By organizing providers and staff - including physicians, advanced practice providers, registered nurses and assistive personnel, as well as radiologists, pathologists and other ancillary service diagnosticians - into collaborative treatment teams, healthcare
facilities and practices can help strengthen care delivery and protect patients/clients from injury.
While the benefits of team structure - including enhanced outcomes, fewer errors and heightened morale - are widely acknowledged, adoption of effective team-based principles remains a challenge for many healthcare settings. (See "Teamwork:
A Balancing Act" below.) The case scenario on page 2 shows how the absence of team-oriented safety protocols, standardized communication formats, well-defined test ordering and tracking policies, and routine follow-up measures may result in clinical
missteps with potentially serious consequences. This edition of AlertBulletin ® suggests ways to cultivate a team-driven safety culture; reviews specific clinical applications of teamwork concepts; and offers examples of innovative, team-oriented models of care designed to safeguard patients/clients and limit professional liability exposure.
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