Hospitals in pursuit of excellence

Bassett Medical Center - Improving Patient Safety in 15 Minutes a Day

Bassett Medical Center, a 180-bed hospital in Cooperstown, New York, has implemented and sustained a safety huddle program. According to Bassett leadership, “Many issues raised at the safety huddle lend themselves to rapid-cycle improvement methodology; several have resulted in organizationwide performance improvement projects.” 

This detailed case study describes Bassett’s safety huddle program, emphasizing execution, guiding principles, outcomes, sustainability and lessons learned. Two graphs track near misses and incident reporting from 2013–2015, and three tables show survey responses from Bassett staff about changes in patient safety and quality and staff teamwork.