Patient Safety Week was an awareness-raising week held from 5–11 November 2017.
It was coordinated for the fourth time by the Health Quality & Safety Commission (the Commission), with the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) joining as partners for the second year. We also received support from PHARMAC, and were fortunate to be well supported by a skilled ideas group that included representatives from most areas of the sector.
Key Results
The Commission and ACC are pleased with participation in the fourth annual Patient Safety Week.
Giving advance notice of the theme and opening resource orders early was well received by providers as they appreciated the extra time to plan their approach. Providers only had positive feedback about the theme ‘Let’s talk medicines’.
Providers were pleased to have resources in a range of languages and showed creativity in adapting some of the resources to suit their needs.
There was both positive and negative feedback about the lanyards and stickers, which will need reviewing with the planning group for 2018.
The morning tea competition went well and we received many photos, activity ideas and downloadable resources from DHBs and health care providers to publish on our website. This will provide a great base for the next Patient Safety Week, as a hub for people to gather inspiration and share ideas.
The positives/what worked well
- The ACC videos and shared Facebook campaign was very successful, with lots of engagement and positive comments on both Facebook pages.
- There was high demand for the resources produced by the Commission for Patient Safety Week, with the Commission sending out the most resources it ever has.
- Pharmacies ordered a large number of resources along with DHBs.
- The Preparing to leave hospital and ACC’s Know what to ask resources continue to be popular with respectively 12,000 and 11,000 copies ordered.
- The Patient Safety Week survey found:
- 78 percent of respondents thought the Taking medicines poster was useful, and over 50 percent thought the other resources were helpful.
- 58 percent thought the ‘Ask me’ illustrated characters were effective, with 18 percent thinking they were not effective.
- 36 percent though the Patient Safety Week’s messages positively impacted on patient behaviour, 24 percent did not agree (40 percent was unsure).
- For each positive comment, there was a negative, probably due to the different needs between providers (eg, hospital staff vs pharmacists).
- DHBS and providers shared a lot of ideas and their customised downloadable resources which were published on the Commission website (linked to the morning tea competition).
The negatives/what could work better
- Some respondents asked for more ideas and lead-in for promoting the week to their staff. Feedback from PHO contact about getting information too late from DHB, and then there is time pressure to properly organise.
- Communicate better that the characters can be downloaded and resources can be customised.
- Rethink and tweak resources for 2018 after feedback that the:
- blue colour text on pharmacy bags was hard to read
- lanyards are an infection risk and are against hospital policy
- stickers don’t stick and can only be used once (some request for smaller ones to add to bags and pill bottles).
- Some feedback from a provider about not following up after Patient Safety Week.