OR Manager - November 2018 - 10

OR Manager Conference
Continued from page 8
worked for the Studer Group. She left
the room briefly and then returned and
restarted the conversation using AIDET
(acknowledge, introduce, duration,
explanation, thank you-communication
behaviors created by the Studer
Group to improve provider-patient interactions).
After the nurse changed her
approach, Deao said, his wife changed
from wanting to fire her to respecting
her as the liaison to the physician.
Resiliency
The heart-wrenching tragedy told by Ridley
Barron left few dry eyes in the room
as he recalled the automobile accident
that instantly killed his wife and the subsequent
medication error that robbed
him of his 17-month-old son less than
a week later. Barron, a pastor and the
author of Twist of Faith, presented " Second
Victim's Silver Lining: Creating a
Culture of Patient Safety. "
The decision to transport his son
from a community hospital to Savannah
Memorial Health was one that seemed
in the child's best interest because
he had sustained severe head injury.
However, some days after being admitted,
the child was inadvertently given an
adult dosage of Phenytoin, an anti-seizure
medication that stopped his heart.
When Barron was summoned to the
hospital and confronted with this news,
he could only kiss his son goodbye and
try to understand what had happened.
Some hours later, he decided that he
wanted the pharmacist to be told that
he forgave her, and that he wasn't planning
to sue the hospital.
Eight months later, after much grief
and pain from his own injuries, he returned
to the hospital to give a talk
about his experience. That talk made
such a profound impact, he was asked
to speak at the National Association of
Children's Hospitals meeting. Although
initially reluctant, he was persuaded
that his story could help healthcare pro10
OR
Manager | November 2018
Interest in the hybrid OR exhibit was evident during the Hybrid OR Committee's
town hall.
viders, and he has been speaking to
groups ever since.
" I still think we have the greatest
healthcare system in the world because
of people like you, " he told conference
attendees. " But I also believe we can
be much, much better so that nobody
ever has to go through what my family
has been through. "
He provided a list of recommendations
for ways to improve the patient
experience:
Create user-friendly environments
for patients. " Every reason that
causes us to come to a hospital [except
perhaps having a baby] means
that people enter the hospital with their
minds in very fragile places, " he said.
" And research tells us that when people
have their minds put in a place of ease
and comfort and stability, their body
responds quicker to things like medications,
treatments, therapies, and rehab.
So whatever you can do to set their
mind at ease is going to make you a
success faster in trying to bring this person
back to a place of hope. "
He added that many other things,
such as adequate signage and friendly,
helpful staff, are very important in forming
an impression of the facility.
Take time for patients and their
families. Because procedures and
length of stay have been shortened over
the years, most of the recovery takes
place at home, he said. " It's increasingly
important that you include these
people [at-home caregivers] in these
conversations from the first day so they
have time to ask questions, become
comfortable, and know the process of
what's happening. "
He asserted that most patients don't
read discharge instructions, and even
if they do, the language is often bewildering.
Patient safety, he said, depends
on various layers of people, and
at-home caregivers may be the last line
of defense when mistakes are made:
" They're more likely to notice subtle
changes...I encourage people to listen
to these voices when they speak up.
Respect them for who they are as caregivers. "
Be
open and honest about the
patient's condition. Barron received
conflicting information about his son's
prognosis from the physician who initially
cared for him and was quite optimistic
versus the physicians who later
opined that a bad outcome would have
been likely because of his injuries.
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