Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Building a Culture of Safety Across Healthcare Teams with Dr. William Scharf

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Building a Culture of Safety Across Healthcare Teams with Dr. William Scharf · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  Hi, everyone. You are listening to the Becker's
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  Healthcare Podcast.
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  I'm Erica Carbajal, and thank you so much
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  for tuning into this episode where we're joined
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  by doctor William Scharf, executive clinical director of
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  quality and safety
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  for AdventHealth.
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  Doctor Scharf, thanks in advance for taking the
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  time.
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  Thanks so much, Erica.
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  Glad to be
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  joining today. Yeah. We're excited to have you.
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  Welcome. Welcome.
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  Well, doctor Scharf, to start us off, do
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  you mind sharing a little bit about your
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  background in health care and your current role
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  at AdventHealth with our audience?
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  Sure. I'm a a surgeon by training.
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  I, went to the University of Illinois,
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  and for medical school and started there for
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  residency and completed surgical studies at the Ohio
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  State University
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  before being in practice,
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  in,
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  Downstate Illinois for a number of years.
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  My life, significantly changed. In 1999,
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  to Air was Human, came out.
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  The imagery at that time was just that
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  there were roughly forty five thousand to a
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  hundred thousand
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  lives being lost each year from a medical
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  error.
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  But the real thing that impacted me is
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  just that there were a couple of visionaries
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  at the organization that I was at that
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  started a patient safety collaborative.
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  And the thing that resonated with me was
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  just that most air is not caused by
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  bad people. It's caused by bad systems.
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  And so, I immersed myself in just almost
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  everything that I could with patient safety
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  and,
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  you know, that sometimes,
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  life throws you curveballs and, I'm here at
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  AdventHealth,
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  with,
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  just an absolutely wonderful organization with a sense
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  of purpose.
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  Yeah. Absolutely. And I know AdventHealth is doing
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  a ton in terms of just creating those
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  systems that you mentioned and those processes that
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  really focus on prevention and and fostering that
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  culture of safety. So excited to hear about
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  that.
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  Doctor Scharf, what is one major patient safety
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  goal that your team at AdventHealth is focused
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  on for 2026?
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  And maybe what operational changes
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  are you working toward to achieve some real
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  progress?
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  Well, I can just say is is that
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  historically when I came, I inherited a newly
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  found patient safety academy.
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  I don't really think that many healthcare organizations
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  have their own patient safety academy or something
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  therein.
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  And, since that time, well, let me just,
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  unpack this a little bit. This is that
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  our Patient Safety Academy, we bring in our
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  clinical and operational leaders,
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  across all of, Annette Health for a three
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  day course, because you really need to understand
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  what are the fundamental
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  parts of patient safety science.
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  We cannot have, our good leaders
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  just finessing and doing what they think is
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  best. They need to have a good foundation
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  in science.
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  And what's happened over the course of years
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  is is is that, there was so much
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  success out of the Patient Safety Academy is
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  is that others have said, this is that
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  doctor Scharf and, some of my other members
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  of my team, what can we do to
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  bring you to our places so that perhaps
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  we could have a condensed version so that
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  you could talk to our managers
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  and, unit, leaders?
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  And to that end, we have created what
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  we call the signature safety seminar.
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  And,
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  what we will do is,
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  our team will jump on a plane or
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  drive to one of our hospitals,
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  and we'll have a condensed version
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  that teaches learning, knowledge,
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  leadership,
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  and, data
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  management.
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  So, it's a great experience.
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  It's actually been an overwhelming success. And, just
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  as a side note is that later today,
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  I'm gonna hop on a plane and and,
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  go to, some of our hospitals in North
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  Georgia
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  to speak, tomorrow
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  at our signature safety seminar.
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  Wow. Yeah. No. Talk about getting on the
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  ground and really and really teaching this and
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  driving this forward. That's great. What a great
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  initiative.
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  Doctor Sharp, one of the things that comes
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  through often, a theme, if you will, that
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  we hear a lot from quality and safety
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  leaders
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  is that a lot of teams
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  can and are good at initiatives. They can
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  follow initiative, make progress
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  in terms of quality and safety, but what
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  really the differentiator is really
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  the organizations
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  that
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  can drive continuous quality improvement. That differentiator comes
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  down to culture.
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  So from your perspective,
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  what leadership behaviors or operational practices
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  actually do build that kind of safety culture
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  daily that's needed across frontline teams?
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  Excellent question. And, Erica, if you don't mind,
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  I'd like to unpack this just a little
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  bit. I'd like to first say is is
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  that,
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  AdventHealth, we aspire to be the safest healthcare
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  organization in the country. That's our North Star
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  goal,
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  plain and simple. That's where we wanna be.
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  To that end, we recognize is that culture
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  just outweighs policies, technology, and protocols.
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  And here's where it becomes challenging. First of
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  all, changing culture takes a very long time.
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  And secondly, it is hard, hard, hard.
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  And so leaders really need to be asking
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  themselves some questions.
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  Do your staff feel safe to report errors
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  without fear of punishment?
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  Are leaders responding constructively
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  or defensively?
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  Are your frontline leaders
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  trust that
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  their concerns are being addressed or does it
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  go into some black box? And do your
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  teams collaborate or do they operate in silos?
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  That's where we have invested really heavily in
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  what we call high reliability
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  organization
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  unit culture.
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  It's where,
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  we have a team that goes to each
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  of our hospitals,
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  and addresses,
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  create Actually, let me just step back. They'll
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  go to our hospitals, create a They have
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  a 55 inches
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  plasma
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  monitor
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  that connects electronically
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  across the hospital, across the system.
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  And what we do is
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  is that
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  that creates a complete data source, but that's
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  not the whole purpose. The whole purpose is
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  creating a sense of community
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  and having frontline,
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  debriefings,
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  every day,
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  for, each of those units because at the
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  end of the day, that's where, like,
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  care is delivered is at the unit.
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  Yeah. That's interesting.
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  And the point you raised too
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  about, you know, when concerns are addressed
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  or brought up, not having them go into
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  a black box, but really important for staff
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  to feel like the loop was closed, if
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  you will. So can you share can you
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  expand on that a little bit and maybe
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  share an example of what those processes
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  look like in terms of being able to
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  follow-up on on concerns that are raised, you
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  know, at scale across such a large organization?
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  Well, yes. First and foremost, it begins with
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  what we call whole person care. It's our
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  brand promise,
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  that we deliver, to our staff and to
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  our our patients.
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  And, it begins with,
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  a faith based culture.
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  It, we have a set of service standards,
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  one of them, which is keep me safe.
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  And,
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  the recognition is is that we have to
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  to drive down the fundamentals
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  of, psychologic safety and creating a just culture.
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  Yeah. Absolutely. Thanks, doctor Sharp.
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  I wanted to ask too just around a
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  recent press gaining report that we covered, and
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  it had found that nearly half of health
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  care workers, I believe it was about 47%,
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  reported low perceptions of safety culture even though
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  overall scores had improved post pandemic. So what's
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  your reaction to those findings, and where do
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  you think perhaps the biggest disconnect still exists
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  between
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  leadership's intentions and then frontline staff's actual experience
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  of safety culture?
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  Well, I would say, first and foremost, when
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  I hear this, it it does make me
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  sad.
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  It does not have to be that way
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  at, most of our places. I say most
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  of our places because,
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  there are some of our AdventHealth hospitals that
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  we have acquired and that are on a
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  pathway, which we call,
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  acquisition to excellence. Nonetheless, is is is that,
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  we have an annual
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  safety culture survey that we look at, really
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  closely
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  and create,
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  strategies and tactics around how to enhance our
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  culture.
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  Now,
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  what I'm getting towards, and that is, is
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  that when we look at each of our
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  hospitals, is that there is always a gap.
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  A gap between leadership and what the frontline
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  staff is
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  perceiving.
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  And, now that's normal. I mean, that's a
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  recognition that there will always be a gap,
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  but what we don't wanna see is a
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  really large gap.
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  And if we have a particular unit or,
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  particular areas that,
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  start to have a gap, then we're gonna
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  intervene or we're gonna try to provide these
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  hospitals,
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  with, tactics that they can,
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  that are actionable,
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  that, they can use, to help,
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  with their teams and so that that gap
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  does not exist.
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  Yeah. Definitely. Sounds like it's really critical to
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  continue to check-in on that annually and and
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  even more often to be able to identify
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  where the gaps are and where they might
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  be growing.
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  Doctor Scharf, I know that you've spoken a
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  lot about the importance of safety as everyone's
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  responsibility
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  as well, not just clinicians, but also ranging
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  from teams like environmental services,
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  HR, spiritual
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  care. So can you share an example
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  where from the bedside maybe, where that cross
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  functional approach has actually made a difference in
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  safety or quality outcomes?
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  Before
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  I dwell into to that answer,
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  Erica, I just wanna say is is that
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  one of the things that we recognized,
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  very early on, and that is is that,
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  HR has to have a seat at the
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  table. And so when we do our signature
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  safety seminar and our Patient Safety Academies, we
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  actually invite HR because they're critical
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  in helping support our work towards a psychologic
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  safety.
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  Now, to answer your question a little bit
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  more fully,
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  and that is, is that it's always been
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  fascinating to me is that when we see
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  comments that patients,
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  have reported about some of the best experiences
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  that they have had, some of the areas,
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  they will call out
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  environmental service individuals who come in and clean
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  their room daily, or the transporters.
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  And there's an old proverb or saying that,
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  is that, you don't have to be Monet
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  to make an impression.
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  And so
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  one of the things that we will do
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  is just that we'll look at the results
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  from our safety culture.
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  And if we see that there's a gap,
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  you know, the transporters do not feel whole
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  or valued,
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  it's just that we're gonna try to,
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  intervene
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  such that they can be part of the
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  daily huddles,
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  that,
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  are, at the high reliability,
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  unit of cultures.
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  Yeah. That's great. And I think that's a
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  really standout example of including,
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  you know, transporters in those daily huddles and
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  also what you mentioned about HR and kind
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  of threading that needle of how they actually
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  do fit in in terms of the psychological
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  safety and cultivating that across the teams.
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  Well, doctor Scharf, thank you so much for
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  joining us on the podcast today, taking time
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  out of away from the high stakes work
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  that I know you're leading to share your
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  insights with our audience.
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  Thank you so much, Erica. It's been a
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  pleasure,
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  and thank you, for all the work that
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  you're doing with Pechers. Have a great day.
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  You too. Take care. We'll stay in touch.