By Healthcare Facilities Today

Hospitals must make infection control part of the cutter, according to Denise Murphy Vice President for Quality and Patient Safety at Main Line Health, an integrated delivery network in suburban Philadelphia. Murphy spoke at the recent US News Hospital of Tomorrow conference in Washington.

According to an article on the US News & World report website, Murphy told attendees that creating a culture of safety and reliability meant doing three things:

• Set clear expectations about safety behaviors. "Everyone had to understand they were accountable for patient safety, and their roles were a little bit different," Murphy said.

• Provide staff with education, skills and tools to address each type of error. This should include methods to build and sustain reliability, including redundancy, visual cues and team training.

• Hold everyone accountable for safety.

The issue of people being afraid to speak up for safety needs to be addressed also, Murphy said. She suggested reducing the "power gradient," which is what subordinates perceive as the distance between them and their superiors, so front-line practitioners and workers feel comfortable speaking up.

Read the article.