Patient Safety, Workforce Safety, and the Conditions for Safer Care with Patricia McGaffigan

Patient safety and workforce safety are not separate priorities. They are different, but deeply connected outcomes of the same health care system.

In this episode, Patricia McGaffigan, Senior Advisor for Safety at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and President of the Certification Board for Professionals in Patient Safety, explains why health care organizations cannot deliver consistently safe, compassionate care without also protecting and supporting their workforce. She discusses why leaders must move beyond reacting to individual errors, distinguish burnout from moral injury and compassion fatigue, and create systems that encourage people to speak up, report risks, and learn from mistakes. Patricia also shares how boards and senior leaders can make safety a daily purpose rather than a dashboard metric by asking what every major decision will mean for the safety of patients and the workforce.

Tune in to learn why patient and workforce safety must be led together, and how health care organizations can build a culture where people are safe to speak up, learn, and thrive.

About Patricia McGaffigan:

Patricia McGaffigan is Senior Advisor for Safety at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and President of the Certification Board for Professionals in Patient Safety. She co-chairs the National Steering Committee for Patient Safety and serves as a liaison to IHI’s Lucian Leape Institute, Patient and Workforce Safety and Well-Being Initiative, and Nursing Initiative. A nationally recognized patient-safety leader, Patricia brings experience in clinical practice, teaching, and medical device and technology organizations, with a career focused on improving safety for patients, families, and the health care workforce.

Things You’ll Learn:

Patient safety and workforce safety are inseparable because patients and care teams experience the same system.

Safer systems address the conditions that lead to harm instead of expecting people to be infallible.

Workforce well-being is a performance strategy that makes care safer, more compassionate, equitable, and reliable.

Burnout, moral injury, and compassion fatigue have different causes and require different responses.

Psychological safety, transparency, and accountability must work together for organizations to learn and improve.

Workarounds often reveal system problems and should be examined rather than blamed on individual clinicians.

Boards and leaders must treat zero preventable harm as a core purpose and weigh the safety impact of every major decision on patients and the workforce.

Resources:

Connect with and follow Patricia McGaffigan on LinkedIn.

Follow the Institute for Healthcare Improvement on LinkedIn and explore the IHI website.

Learn more about IHI’s National Action Plan to Advance Patient Safety.

For questions, ideas, or guest suggestions, email [email protected].