HCA Healthcare, based in Nashville, Tennessee, is taking unique steps to bolster patient safety. Grasping lessons from other high-risk industries, HCA offers ‘field trips’ to its staff members in an attempt to learn and incorporate practices from these sectors into their own health system, as disclosed in a podcast by the American Hospital Association on September 3.
The Chief Quality Officer of HCA Healthcare, Dr. Randy Fagin, affirms that despite being on par or even above the average healthcare industry safety metrics, other high-risk industries, such as chemical manufacturing, high-speed rail, general mechanical manufacturing, military aviation, and oil and gas, have proven to be notably safer. Dr. Fagin tenaciously advocates that safety is fundamental, and achieving regulatory compliance is unattainable without a solid safety foundation. Emphasizing the significance of safety, he noted that a lack of safety could negatively impact clinical outcomes and result in more medical liability claims. Dr. Fagin further stated that best safety practices from other industries could easily be merged into the healthcare system without modifying its established operating models.
To implement this, HCA assembled an interdisciplinary team comprising professionals from safety, human resources, ethics compliance, nursing, among other departments. These teams participated in field trips, which included visits to a GE computed tomography manufacturing plant in Wisconsin, a DuPont Chemical facility in Delaware, and the 160th Airborne Division that provides helicopter aviation support for special operations forces. The primary objective was to spend time with entities that have achieved significant levels of safety, performance, and reliability to draw valuable insights that could be practically applied back in healthcare.