Instructions: After reading through the scenario below you will use the data provided on page 2 to create a scatter diagram using Excel. What we know: 1. Preventable harm impacts healthcare workers as well as patients. 2. A strong safety culture is the key to better outcomes for both employee and patient health and safety.
A 12 month pilot study, comprised of a small group of hospitals located throughout the state, was conducted. The purpose of the pilot was to test a new approach for addressing patient safety AND workforce safety. Over the course of the 12 months, staff at each hospital participated in monthly educational events addressing the safety topics (safe patient handling; blood and body fluid exposure; workplace violence prevention; employee slips trips and falls), and incorporating various new technical fixes (e.g., checklists, targeted training on processes, etc.) as part of the improvement process. Staff on the focus units – in addition to the training listed above – participated in monthly training covering personal resiliency concepts (self-awareness, purpose, self-care, mindfulness and relationships). The idea being tested: Will the addition of resiliency training provide those staff members with specific tools they can use to better care for themselves thus allowing them to be more present and healthier when caring for others? (See sidebar for details on why the group wanted to test resilience training.) What is resilience? Resilience is the ability of people to cope with stress and crisis, and then rebound quickly. Highly resilient workers are able to: • Cope well with high levels of on-going, disruptive change. • Change to a new way of working when the old way is no longer possible. • Sustain good health and energy when under constant pressure. • Keep it together during a crisis, cope well with adversity Learn valuable lessons from their tough experience. • Resilient people have stress-resistant personalities. Why do we think resiliency training might make a difference on employee safety and well-being, and thus patient safety? • Because, today, more than ever, resilience is needed in the workplace. Employees are experiencing on-going change in the workplace. They’re asked to take on new responsibilities, learn new skills, and do more with less. • Burnout is becoming worse and worse in the healthcare setting. • Health care workforce injuries 30 times higher than other industries. • More FTE (full-time equivalent) days are lost due to occupational illness and injury in health care each year than in industries such as mining, machinery manufacturing and construction. • 76% of nurses in national survey indicated that unsafe working conditions interfere with the delivery of quality care. • An RN or MD has a 5-6 times higher chance of being assaulted than a cab driver in an urban area. • Burnout leads to lost work hours, turnover, inability to attract newcomers to caring professions, less vigilance with regard to safety practices – both for patients and for workforce, and increased opportunities for medical errors (Source: Through the Eyes of the Workforce, Lucian Leape Institute at the National Patient Safety Foundation, Feb 2013)
After the pilot: After completing the pilot, the group got curious! They wondered whether the addition of resiliency training would show any type of impact on the OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) TRIR (total recordable incident rate – e.g., work related injuries). To explore that question, the team compared OHSA TRIR data from the focus units that participated in the pilot study (those who received resiliency training), to the overall OSHA hospital data (all other units participated in the safety work but did not receive resiliency training) to see if the data showed any interesting differences. See data table below.
Data collected: Month Hospital OSHA TRIR Rates (no resiliency training) Focus units OSHA TRIR Rates (included resiliency training) Jan 5.2 4.6 Feb 7.5 5 Mar 5.9 3.9 Apr 6.1 3.6 May 5.8 0.9 Jun 6.2 1.9 Jul 4.3 2 Aug 5.1 1.1 Sep 4.7 0.8 Oct 4.1 1 Nov 4.8 0 Dec 11.1 3
Assignment: 1. Review the IHI QI Essentials Scatter Diagram worksheet, and the two videos listed below. Follow the directions in the video to create a scatter diagram in Excel. 2. Describe what you learned: a. What do your findings tell you? b. What steps, if any, would you like to take to further explore your findings? 3. Was the scatter diagram the best tool to display this type of data? Why or why not? If not, which type of graph do you feel would be more effective in displaying this data?