Skip to main content

Military Health System

COVID-19 Responses Underscore Importance of Patient Safety

Image of Every day, patient safety is one of the top priorities for the Defense Health Agency. Patient safety means providing ready, reliable care to service members, veterans, and dependents no matter the circumstances. (Photo: Defense Health Agency). Every day, patient safety is one of the top priorities for the Defense Health Agency. Patient safety means providing ready, reliable care to service members, veterans, and dependents no matter the circumstances. (Photo: Defense Health Agency)

Recommended Content:

Patient Safety | Patient Safety Awareness Week | Coronavirus and the COVID-19 Vaccine | Coronavirus & the MHS Response | Patient Safety Awareness Week

Leaders across the Military Health System have to support patient safety in their everyday actions. This develops trust, and allows anyone who might identify patient safety concerns to speak up, including health care professionals, non-clinical staff, patients, and their families.

And while every day is a patient safety day, a unique spotlight shines on this issue during Patient Safety Awareness Week, an international education and awareness-building campaign at the local level.

"It's Important to take this additional time to focus on patient safety and being resilient in our daily practices," said Heidi King, chief of the DOD Patient Safety Program (PSP) within the Defense Health Agency.

The theme for this year's Patient Safety Awareness Week, March 13-19, is "Standardizing Safety Solutions: Uniting for Ready, Reliable Care."

The MHS introduced the Ready Reliable Care (RRC) approach in 2021 as an extension of the High Reliability Organization (HRO) concepts. The MHS adopted HRO concepts to improve health care access, quality, transparency, and patient engagement.

An HRO standardizes patient safety practices and policies to reduce patient harm, as well as to encourage openness in communications with patients and their families.

"We've learned from Army, Navy, and Air Force HRO advancements, and DHA has embraced the Ready Reliable Care approach in both clinical and non-clinical settings," King explained.

Patient safety is paramount in all aspects of health care delivery. "Standardization of safe care practices plays a key role in this effort," King said, and MHS partners with internal and external stakeholders, and beneficiaries to share lessons learned, leading practices and other improvement opportunities, she noted.

RRC Safety Communications Bundle

The RRC Safety Communications Bundle (SCB) is part of the focus of this year's Patient Safety Awareness Week across the MHS.

The bundle is a set of six, standardized, evidence-based safety practices that was published in DHA policy in January, 2022.

These practices are "designed to improve the culture of safety and reduce workplace-related stressors that contribute to burnout" among health care workers, said Dr. Julie Kinn, DHA's patient safety solutions lead for the PSP. Overall, "its goal is to reduce preventable harm."

How Patient Safety and COVID-19 Responses Came Together

As the COVID-19 pandemic rapidly developed, the MHS fast-tracked efforts to preserve patient safety.

For example, MHS significantly increased the use of telehealth within a short period of time and ramped up the Nurses' Health Advice Line.

It created drive-thru pharmacies and pop-up COVID-19 testing sites, unveiled new tests and lab assays for COVID-19, and increased focus on infection prevention and control procedures.

Once COVID-19 vaccines became available to the MHS in December 2020, medical teams immediately set up mass vaccination efforts worldwide for service members on a tiered basis.

A recent RRC HRO awards ceremony highlighted several examples of this vaccination effort. Two examples are the vaccination program at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Rota, Italy; and at the Naval Hospital in Okinawa, Japan.

In Rota, the naval hospital's top experts accepted the recommendations of local physician and nursing champions and quality and patient safety leaders to align vaccination guidelines that included scheduling, screening, administering, observing, and documenting vaccination following host-nation and military base policies for social distancing, according to an abstract by Navy Cmdr. (Dr.) David Paz.

Before Rota got its vaccine shipments, it held five vaccination dry-runs in collaboration with operational leaders, and nurse team leads created "huddle tools," Paz wrote.

Over four months of near daily mass vaccinations, the hospital's team administered 8,000 vaccines with no adverse events and reached a service-high 94% vaccination rate for active-duty hospital staff, and 88% for all other active duty on base, Paz wrote.

In Okinawa, the commanding officer chartered the "#vaxoki team" in September 2020 with the mission to provide COVID-19 vaccinations for Okinawa's 50,000 beneficiaries, according to an abstract from Navy Lt. Cmdr. (Dr.) Jenny Smith.

Since December 2020, the #vaxoki team has given more than 60,000 vaccinations. The #vaxoki team consistently vaccinated over 150 beneficiaries per hour during its busiest times with more than 1,000 vaccines administered in a single day, Smith wrote.

Find out more information about the Patient Safety Program and the RRC HRO Awards Program.

You also may be interested in...

DOD COVID-19 Practice Management Guide Version 8

Technical Document
1/31/2022

This Practice Management Guide does not supersede DOD Policy. It is based upon the best information available at the time of publication. It is designed to provide information and assist decision making. It is not intended to define a standard of care and should not be construed as one. Neither should it be interpreted as prescribing an exclusive course of management. It was developed by experts in this field. Variations in practice will inevitably and appropriately occur when clinicians take into account the needs of individual patients, available resources, and limitations unique to an institution or type of practice. Every healthcare professional making use of this guideline is responsible for evaluating the appropriateness of applying it in the setting of any particular clinical situation. The Practice Management Guide is not intended to represent TRICARE policy. Further, inclusion of recommendations for specific testing and/or therapeutic interventions within this guide does not guarantee coverage of civilian sector care. Additional information on current TRICARE benefits may be found at www.tricare.mil or by contacting your regional TRICARE Managed Care Support Contractor.

Recommended Content:

Coronavirus & the MHS Response | COVID-19 Information for Military Treatment Facility Directors

RRC Safety Communication Bundle Flyer

Technical Document
11/4/2021

The RRC Safety Communication Bundle is a set of six standardized communication Practices designed to increase leadership engagement, improve communication and teamwork, and reduce burnout with the goal of reducing preventable harm.

Recommended Content:

Safety Communication Bundle | Patient Safety

DOD COVID-19 Practice Management Guide Version 7

Technical Document
3/4/2021

This Practice Management Guide does not supersede DOD Policy. It is based upon the best information available at the time of publication. It is designed to provide information and assist decision making. It is not intended to define a standard of care and should not be construed as one. Neither should it be interpreted as prescribing an exclusive course of management. It was developed by experts in this field. Variations in practice will inevitably and appropriately occur when clinicians take into account the needs of individual patients, available resources, and limitations unique to an institution or type of practice. Every healthcare professional making use of this guideline is responsible for evaluating the appropriateness of applying it in the setting of any particular clinical situation. The Practice Management Guide is not intended to represent TRICARE policy. Further, inclusion of recommendations for specific testing and/or therapeutic interventions within this guide does not guarantee coverage of civilian sector care. Additional information on current TRICARE benefits may be found at www.tricare.mil or by contacting your regional TRICARE Managed Care Support Contractor.

Recommended Content:

Coronavirus & the MHS Response

Patient Safety Champion Nomination Form 2018

Technical Document
3/15/2018

The Patient Safety Champion Certificate of Recognition is a peer to-peer recognition program led by the DoD Patient Safety Program. This program gives Military Health System staff an opportunity to recognize peers for their patient safety efforts within their local military treatment facility.

Recommended Content:

Patient Safety

2018 High Reliability Awards Application Guidance

Technical Document
3/14/2018

Recommended Content:

Patient Safety

ASD HA Patient Safety Survey Memo

Technical Document
2/29/2016

Memo from Dr. Jonathan Woodson, Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs), encouraging participation in the Patient Safety Culture Survey.

Recommended Content:

Patient Safety | Culture Survey

PIM TeamSTEPPS CE Process Timeline

Technical Document
4/22/2015

Document highlights the updated process timeline for course coordinators and participants to receive Continuing Education (CE) credits post-course facilitation of the TeamSTEPPS curriculum. This process has been udpated due to a recent transition to Postgraduate Institute for Medicine (PIM) accreditation for the curriculum.

Recommended Content:

Patient Safety

TeamSTEPPS Course Coordinator PIM

Technical Document
4/22/2015

Document highlighting the roles and responsibilities of all TeamSTEPPS Course Coordinators, responsible for facilitating training utilizing the DoD Patient Safety Program's TeamSTEPPS curriculum.

Recommended Content:

Patient Safety

TeamSTEPPS Train the Trainer Agenda Example

Technical Document
4/22/2015

Example of a TeamSTEPPS Train the Trainer two day course agenda. TeamSTEPPS Course Coordinators should utilize this example to submit a course request to the DoD Patient Safety Program. This is a requirement to receive accreditation approval for each course from the Postgraduate Institute for Medicine (PIM).

Recommended Content:

Patient Safety

DoD PSP ORC Instructor Profile

Technical Document
4/22/2015

Document outlines the steps for course coordinators and instructors of the DoD Patient Safety Program (PSP) safety training curriculum TeamSTEPPS, to access their instructor profile in the Online Registration Center (ORC). Included in these steps is an overview of the instructor's responsibilities post-course in the ORC to ensure participants receive Continuing Education (CE) credits for course completion.

Recommended Content:

Patient Safety | Products & Services

TeamSTEPPS Train the Staff Agenda PM Example

Technical Document
4/22/2015

Example of a TeamSTEPPS Train the Staff course agenda for an PM session. TeamSTEPPS Course Coordinators should utilize this example to submit a course request to the DoD Patient Safety Program. This is a requirement to receive accreditation approval for each course from the Postgraduate Institute for Medicine (PIM).

Recommended Content:

Patient Safety

TeamSTEPPS Train the Staff Agenda AM Example

Technical Document
4/22/2015

Example of a TeamSTEPPS Train the Staff course agenda for an AM session. TeamSTEPPS Course Coordinators should utilize this example to submit a course requests to the DoD Patient Safety Program. This is a requirement to receive accreditation approval for each course from the Postgraduate Institute for Medicine (PIM).

Recommended Content:

Patient Safety

Patient Safety Order Materials FAQs

Technical Document
12/17/2014

This DoD Patient Safety Program document outlines the frequently asked questions in reference to ordering patient safety materials from the Patient Safety portion of the Health.mil website. The document includes vital contact information for assistance and account registration information.

Recommended Content:

Products & Services | Patient Safety

Sustainment Guide for Reducing Harm Associated with Patient Falls

Technical Document
4/2/2014

This Falls Sustainment Guide supports the 2012 - 2013 Military Health System (MHS) Partnership for Patients initiative to improve the quality and safety of health care in all Department of Defense (DoD) Medical Treatment Facilities (MTF). The purpose of this Falls Sustainment Guide is to provide the tools and resources to ensure a reduction in falls and harm from falls at your Military Treatment facility (MTF).

Recommended Content:

Patient Safety | Products & Services

Implementation Guide for Readmissions

Technical Document
2/13/2014

The Readmissions Implementation Guide is one of 10 harm-specific guides designed to assist you as you implement identified evidence-based practices to improve patient care.

Recommended Content:

Patient Safety | Products & Services
<< < 1 2 > >> 
Showing results 1 - 15 Page 1 of 2
Refine your search
Last Updated: February 01, 2023
Follow us on Instagram Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Follow us on YouTube Sign up on GovDelivery