Highlights from the Midwest Healthcare Quality Alliance's (MHQA) annual patient safety and simulation symposium, “Fundamentally Human—An Innovative Exploration of Patient Safety and Engagement," were the focus of a recent article in Patient Safety and Quality Healthcare. MHQA is a multifacility partnership that was established in 2014 to “develop innovative solutions for improving healthcare safety and quality across populations through research, education, and simulation." The alliance is housed within a facility that includes a state-of-the-art simulation center. Such facilities are “a valuable resource in advancing the use of simulation in creative ways," according to the chief executive officer of the National Patient Safety Foundation. The facility is also home to one of the country's oldest standardized patient programs, which provides over 150 actors in order to conceivably make available a “''patient' for almost every age, body type, and ethnicity to fulfill any disease known to medicine," the article said. Among the topics addressed at the symposium were human factors and their impact on medical errors. One simulation included a “moaning patient" and a distraction, his “very angry sister." The simulation presented many errors—including a wrong-patient identification band and expired intravenous fluids—but before the participants could observe this, they had to “interact appropriately" with the sister. Team reactions to this simulation varied. Some participating teams were able to deescalate the situation. Others, the article said, surprisingly did not perform well. The article offered multiple other simulations as well as tips and the rationales behind them for conducting multiscenario simulations. Tips included the following: establish clear simulation objectives; limit the size of the simulation to 10 participants or fewer; present pre- and postscenario briefs; and include observers who can share their observations with the participants.
HRC Recommends: Simulation programs can be used to improve both technical and nontechnical skills such as teamwork and communication. Benefits of simulation include a safe learning environment and the ability to repeat scenarios in order to practice skills. Healthcare risk managers may want to encourage their organizations to develop simulation programs in order to help improve performance related to patient safety and quality.
