Hospitals in pursuit of excellence

Celebrating Patient Safety

Marking its 60th anniversary last year, Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, NJ, can count many accomplishments, including its work developing a culture of safety. About 15 years ago, the 451-bed hospital serving northern New Jersey experienced a blip up in medication errors. Valley administrators and staff investigated and concluded their complex process for reporting errors needed improvement. Michael Mutter, then the hospital's pharmacy manager, observes, "Our culture needed to change if we were going to believe information is knowledge and to encourage staff to report occurrences [of errors] rather than fear reprisal." Staff started reporting near misses, and the hospital rewarded their improvement efforts and also implemented bar coding. As a result, Valley reduced medication errors by 30 percent to 35 percent. But performance improvement didn't stop there. Mutter and two colleagues participated in class 2 of the AHA-NPSF Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship. The fellowship provided thought-provoking faculty for presentations and coaching, a forum for dialogue, and valuable networking opportunities, says Mutter, now director of patient safety. Class 11 of the PSLF class, convening at this week's Health Forum-AHA Leadership Summit in San Francisco, will include the 15th and 16th staff members that Valley has sent to participate. All the fellows from Valley are helping guide patient safety improvement throughout the hospital. For more information, contact Mutter at mmutter@valleyhealth.com.