2017 Patient Safety Survey Result – Accreditation Canada

Summary Results

From October – December 2017, Menno Place collected your survey responses for the Canadian Patient Safety Culture Survey Tool. The results of this survey are compared to the 2013 results for Menno Place.

We are interested in receiving your insights into your perceptions of resident safety – our strengths, areas for improvement and ability to monitor changes as we move forward.

Here is what the 2017 survey results told us:

  1. The areas of concern in 2013 have been substantially addressed.
  2. We’ve improved in all areas of patient safety since 2013.
  3. Your biggest concern  is what will happen if you make a serious error.

2017 Patient Safety Culture Survey Tool Results as compared to 2013:

The 2017 results show a 29 % increase in green flags, a 17% decrease in yellow flags, and a 12 percent decrease in red flags.

You will notice a higher percentage of Green Flags. These are positive answers for more than 75% of respondents.

You’ll also notice a lower number of Yellow Flags. These are positive answers for 50 – 75% of the respondents.

You will also see that we have fewer Red Flags. These are positive answers by less than 50% of the respondents.

Menno Place is very pleased with the progress that we have made in the past four years in the area of patient safety. Thank you for your hard work in making this happen!

We are committed to providing a growing awareness of a culture of safety at Menno Place, including psychological safety, workplace safety and resident safety.

Your major concerns (Red Flags) relate to what will happen to you if you make a serious error:

  1. Will my manager think I’m incompetent?
  2. Will I lose my job?
  3. Will I face disciplinary action?
  4. Will I limit my career opportunities at Menno Place?

We recognize through these survey results that not all of our team members know the process of what takes place when they make a serious error. This may cause anxiety, stress, covering up and/or reducing our resident’s safety.

What happens if you make a serious error?

  1. You must report every error that you make or become aware of.
  2. Your supervisor will investigate and assess the error.
  3. You may receive support, education, training and coaching that is appropriate for the situation.
  4. Your supervisor will consult with Human Resources to determine if progressive discipline or termination may be appropriate.

Menno Place managers and supervisors make every effort to support and work for a solution in the event of a serious error. At the same time, we see from the survey results that our staff fully understand the possible outcomes if they make a serious error. These outcomes may be disciplinary action, training in competence, education and coaching. It may be that an error is serious enough to warrant immediate dismissal, for example, substantiated abuse towards a resident.

Since 2013

What have we been working on since the 2013 Patient Safety Culture survey?

  • Senior leadership support for valuing safety
  • Supervisory leadership support for safety
  • Patient safety learning culture
  • Communication barriers / talking about errors
  • Overall perception of patient safety

Much of these changes came through the COR initiative which brought safety to the forefront of our team meetings and educational efforts.

Remember Corky the Safety Hero?

More Details

Menno Place uses the Accreditation Canada’s Qmentum program to guide our quality improvement efforts. This involves measuring the presence and degree of safety culture in our organization by surveying the opinions of staff in a variety of departments.

Culture is widely recognized and accepted as a significant driver in changing behaviour and expectations in order to increase safety within organizations. By surveying staff, we are able to receive valuable insights into their perceptions of patient safety as well as Menno Place’s areas of strength, areas for improvement, and ability to monitor changes within our organization.

The Process:

A link to the Canadian Patient Safety Culture Survey Tool was emailed to each full time and part time staff personal or work email on October 13, 2017 with the closing date on December 6, 2017.  Reminder emails went out to staff approximately every 2 weeks to ensure maximum participation. The required number of participants were 185 and 187 surveys were received. All were completed on the web site portal. Here is a breakdown of the survey responses from 2017 as well as 2013.

2017 2013
Menno Apartments – 23
Menno Home – 81 Menno Home – 106
Menno Hospital – 83 Menno Hospital – 58
Total – 187 Total – 164