The brief/debrief is not
the only type of communi-
cation we worked on. We
added a safety huddle
within each department
before or during their
workdays — with no
patient or surgeon pres-
ent. We had once done
something similar, but
ended the practice, not
thinking of it as impacting
our small hospital's safety
efforts. This turned out
not only to be valuable,
but also everyone liked
having this opportunity to
focus.
In our safety huddles, everybody (including anesthesia) has a set
time to address the day and any concerns for the next day. We review
equipment; we view the caseload, staffing and high-risk patients. All
of these opportunities for communication create situations where
staff have a forum to verbalize their concerns. We can find out in the
safety huddle, for example, if we've got a high anxiety patient so we
can prepare for that. This is also the time to go over any events that
may have an impact on our day, like if an elevator will be shut down
or a computer system will be offline.
3. Huddle in the morning
3 8 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • A P R I L 2 0 1 8
• WHITEBOARDS, NOT CLIPBOARDS Standardize your count boards so that
everybody knows exactly where to look to get the information they need.
Janelle
Anderson,
MSN,
RN
