What is a safety culture?
An organization’s safety culture is defined by the values, behaviours, and attitudes they have towards safety. A strong culture of safety prioritizes the safety of clients and employees above all else. Part of this involves promoting blame-free reporting, where all employees feel comfortable reporting safety concerns without fear of punishment.
What does a strong safety culture look like?
A strong safety culture looks like…
- Improved communication and reporting
- Employees feeling empowered
- Errors seen as learning opportunities
- All staff feeling comfortable reporting errors and incidents
- High quality care
- Commitment to overall safety
- Reduction in risk and safety events as root causes are addressed
What’s an example of a measure that Circle of Care has in place to support our safety culture?
An example of a measure we have in place to support our safety culture is our adverse event debrief process.
When we become aware of an adverse event, we launch an investigation to collect the facts. With a team of individuals from different departments, a root cause analysis is conducted and system flaws are identified. Action plans are based on the root cause analysis. The process is focused on improving systems to prevent similar incidents in the future, not placing blame on those involved.
