New survey results show Cookeville Regional Medical Center made strong gains in its patient safety culture.
CRMC Associate Chief Nursing Officer Chevelle Johnson said the survey gives feedback on patient safety and how the hospital is operating. Survey results show that CRMC had nine percent improvement in communication about errors, a six percent improvement in staffing and work pace, and a seven percent overall improvement in hospital-wide culture of safety rating, surpassing the three percent goal that was set in 2023.
“When we look at making improvements and setting a goal, we try to do that three percent, and that’s usually lofty, that’s a lofty goal to do three percent in any one of these measurements,” Johnson said. “So to go above that is very significant, but we have put a lot of work in the last few years to improve our culture of safety.”
Johnson said the survey is conducted every two years and is completed by anonymous CRMC staff members. Johnson said Cookeville Regional improved by focusing on hand-off communications and communication about errors.
“We had sub-committees to work on those, and we encourage reporting,” Johnson said. “You know, if staff don’t report errors or incidents or near misses, you know, we don’t know about them and we can’t make improvements. We really have done a hospital-wide campaign to encourage reporting, to make things transparent, because if one department or one nurse or one staff member almost made a mistake, well, somebody else can make it, so we need to know about it so we can look at our processes. 98 percent of your mistakes are processes and not people.”
Johnson said errors are widely ranging, as errors could be giving patients the wrong treatment, putting a band on the wrong arm, or even not properly cleaning a room before the next patient. Johnson said patients don’t come to CRMC to get sick, they come to get better.
“Oftentimes, there are errors and mistakes in a hospital that happen, and that’s not what patients come for,” Johnson said. “That is our main goal is to provide excellent, safe, quality patient care. That’s why we are here.”
Johnson said CRMC’s Culture of Safety Committee will dig into the results to see where CRMC can improve over the next two years.
