Leadership is vital
Real life is multifactorial, so our analysis and solutions had to be mul-
tifactorial, too. We needed to address the physical, cognitive and psy-
chosocial components to get injuries under control.
And we also needed something else: the full support of leadership
and the OR staff. I've been an ergonomist for more than 20 years, and
I know that when I do ergonomics training in factories, the only way
to make it succeed is to make sure the team leads are very well
trained and that they get buy-in from the line staff.
I had great teams working with me at both hospitals and actively par-
ticipating in the process improvement studies. At the teaching hospital,
I had 2 surgeons working with me as co-investigators, as well as many
of the core OR team personnel participating in the study. Compliance
was excellent. I trained the surgical technicians and nurses, and one of
the surgeons trained the residents and students because I knew he
would have more credibility with them.
In the end, a quick and temporary fix wouldn't do. We needed to
change the culture. To accomplish that, we needed supervisors who
would reinforce the training and staff who bought into the safer prac-
tices. That's what they did, and that's how we brought about real change.
Incidentally, the surgery teams had made it clear that the training I
developed had to be efficient. They couldn't afford to spend hours in a
classroom. The improvement came about with just 2 15-minute train-
ing modules.
Within a year, the hospital achieved an 86% decrease in injuries from
sharps and needlesticks. Now, several years later, it continues to rank
among the best hospitals at preventing such injuries.
OSM
J U N E 2 0 1 8 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 1 0 3
Ms. Kalaga (pramila.kalaga@alegent.org) is a board-certified ergonomist at
CHI Health in Omaha, Neb.
