Northwest Healthcare’s High Reliability Culture Keeps Patients Safe
Northwest Healthcare prioritizes patient safety above all else. That’s why Northwest Medical Center and Oro Valley Hospital both received “A” grades in the spring 2022 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade rankings. This national distinction recognizes our hospitals’ achievements in protecting patients from preventable harm and error in the hospital.
One reason we earned these “A” grades: Our organization strives to foster a High Reliability Culture, or HRO, in which patients can count on receiving excellent healthcare.
We use a few key guiding principles to help us do this:
- Deference to expertise.
- Reluctance to simplify.
- Sensitivity to operations.
- Commitment to resiliency.
- Preoccupation with failure.
In practical terms, this means that everyone who wears our badge is committed to preventing and solving problems that could lead to unintended harm or error. We pay close attention to how our care is delivered so we can identify any potential failure before it occurs. Then, we quickly act to understand why that particular failure might have been possible. We can correct and/or avoid problems by approaching them like this.
Finally, we nurture a healthy, safe environment for our staff – using everyone’s collective wisdom to constantly get better – as we provide patients with safe, timely, effective, efficient, equitable and patient-centered care.