Left to Right - Marcia Harmon, Robbie Sjelin, Alan Aviles, Lt Colonel Rebecca N. Minone

How did HHC make safety a priority across such a large, complex and diverse system? How did you so successfully improve teamwork and communications? How do you learn from mistakes to improve performance?

Those are some of the questions U.S. Army representatives asked HHC during their recent fact finding mission to learn best patient safety practices that can be replicated in the Army’s large network of healthcare providers.

U.S. Army Medical Command Nurse Consultants Robbie Sjelin and Marcia Harmon; and Lieutenant Colonel and Army Nurse Rebecca N. Minone, conducted site visits to Lincoln Hospital, Elmhurst Hospital and HHC’s Institute for Medical Simulation and Advanced Learning on Feb. 9 and 10 to learn first hand how HHC has been meeting its ambitious goal of becoming one of the safest healthcare systems in the country.

The Army nurses talked to staff in labor and delivery units and emergency departments, and also met with HHC President Alan D. Aviles and other HHC senior officials to explore strategies that have helped HHC hardwire patient safety into every corner of operations and at every staff level. The Army officials said they were particularly impressed with the HHC implementation of TeamSTEPPS to improve communications, the “Just Culture” efforts to encourage open and honest reporting of adverse events, and how HHC coordinates the activities of Risk, Safety and Quality teams at the corporate level and on the front lines to work closely together to reduce errors and improve safety and performance.