February 3, 2004
Delta Team has Landed at the University of Pennsylvania
Health System (UPHS)
Pioneering patient safety program premiers at
Ivy League health system
(Philadelphia, PA)— Nearly 100 eager recruits
will begin a year-long training program to become part
of the Delta Team -- an elite group of patient safety
peer educators -- at the University of Pennsylvania
Health System (UPHS). The Delta Team is a patient
safety program, the likes of which have never before
been seen within a health care system. It has been singularly
designed to train those on the frontline in all aspects
of patient safety, its policies and procedures, and
serve as a safety resource for their peers. The Delta
Team program premieres on February 5 when representatives
from all areas of the health system -- including nutrition
services, pharmacy, social work, home care, public safety,
and clinical practice managers -- begin their intensive
training. When deployed, the Delta team will help UPHS
accelerate the entire organization’s learning
with respect to patient safety.
“In order to truly create a culture of change,
you must have both the leadership and the frontline
employees involved and committed,” said
P.J. Brennan, MD, UPHS Chief of Health Care
Quality and Patient Safety. “Systems have not
always been designed with an eye to safety; they’re
set up to be efficient and get work done. Errors, when
they do occur, are not the fault of a single, reckless
person, but are more the result of a series of poorly
designed systems. Ultimately, in order to effectively
solve problems about safety, we need to help all individuals
evaluate the systems and analyze each system for possible
failure.” Brennan concluded.
As with most things in academic medicine, the Delta
Team’s name has its roots in Greek. “Delta
is the Greek letter for change,” said Maureen
Disbot, Director of Clinical Effectiveness
and Quality Improvement (CEQI) for UPHS. “With
the Delta Team, we are “seeding” the organization
with employees uniquely qualified to help us change
how patient safety is communicated throughout the health
system,” she said.
The yearlong grass-roots program has been produced
entirely by UPHS staff. And, its collaborative design
-- led by UPHS’s Organizational Design and Competency
Systems -- makes it a unique means of partnering patient
safety education with a career-enhancing program.
“At UPHS, patient safety is viewed as a shared
responsibility that spans across all service areas;
it is not the sole responsibility of nurses and physicians,”
said Elizabeth Riley-Wasserman, PhD,
UPHS Director of Organizational Design and Competency
Systems. “This program focuses on our “go-to”
people who are interested in taking more of a leadership
role in helping UPHS communicate its standards for patient
safety throughout all of its locations.” she said.
Employees from all of the health system entities --
including the Hospital of the University of
Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Hospital, Presbyterian Medical
Center, Phoenixville Hospital, and all locations
of the system’s clinical practices -- were encouraged
to apply. (Applications could be easily retrieved from
the CEQI website.) Candidates were asked to discuss
individual strengths and experiences as well as their
specific interest in enlisting, as well secure recommendations
from their department and a fellow UPHS employee.
The Delta Team kick-off event will focus on “courageous
conversations” and features keynote speaker, Kenwyn
Smith, PhD, an organizational psychologist. “Courageous
conversations,” or the ability to feel comfortable
speaking up if when seeing something that’s not
right, has been initially identified where Delta team
members can positively affect patient safety. “For
instance, a distraction in the environment—such
as a noisy inpatient unit—could prevent nurses
from hearing clinical alarms, but if no one speaks up
about it, the problem continues unchecked,” Disbot
said. Members of the Delta Team will learn about being
proactive and comfortably speaking up, and then pass
this skill on to their coworkers. “We want to
empower employees to have “courageous” conversations
about events affecting patient safety,” she continued.
Future programs will focus on UPHS’s unique online
safety tracking system, Penn Occurrence Reporting and
Tracking System (PORTS) and a prospective system analysis
called Failure Mode Effects Analysis (FMEA).
For
a printer friendly version of this release, click
here.
# # #
PENN Medicine is
a $2.2 billion enterprise dedicated to the related missions
of medical education, biomedical research, and high-quality
patient care. PENN Medicine consists of the University
of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (founded in 1765
as the nation’s first medical school) and the
University of Pennsylvania Health System (created in
1993 as the nation’s first integrated academic
health system).
Penn’s School of Medicine is ranked #2 in the
nation for receipt of NIH research funds; and ranked
#4 in the nation in U.S. News & World Report’s
most recent ranking of top research-oriented medical
schools. Supporting 1,400 fulltime faculty and 700 students,
the School of Medicine is recognized worldwide for its
superior education and training of the next generation
of physician-scientists and leaders of academic medicine.
Penn Health System consists of four hospitals (including
its flagship Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania,
consistently rated one of the nation’s “Honor
Roll” hospitals by U.S. News & World Report),
a faculty practice plan, a primary-care provider network,
three multispecialty satellite facilities, and home
health care and hospice.
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