Re-Commit to Safe Care as Quality Garners Support from White House

Posted on March 3, 2022 by Julie Apold

With a goal of eliminating preventable harm in the course of caregiving, the LeadingAge Minnesota Safe Care initiative directly addresses the White House’s recent call for nursing homes to prevent resident harm and improve safety and quality.

Given a renewed focus on quality and safety, we encourage all members to affirm their commitment to quality care by engaging – or reengaging – in the Safe Care program.

In June of 2017, the LeadingAge Minnesota Board of Directors commissioned a task force to develop strong actions members could take to prevent harm before it occurs. Safe Care began in early 2018 and is built on a foundation of proven safety science that has been shown effective in many industries, including aviation and acute health care.

Members are making significant strides in implementing these five key actions that are effective in improving safety and reducing harm:

• Engaging in safety at the leadership level;
• Designating safety champions;
• Participating in collaborative learning and improvement to take decisive action to address specific safety issues;
• Partnering with residents and families in quality and safety; and
• Establishing a fair and just culture encourages speaking up, learning, and improvement.

We are continuously analyzing survey and complaint data to understand key themes and factors contributing to the events cited most often. We bring together experts and member advisory groups to conduct a deep dive into the data to understand the problems and recommend decisive actions to prevent similar events across the membership. Examples of Advisory Group Topics and Resources include:

• Preventing Dietary Safety Events 
• Strengthening I’m Okay and Safety Checks
• Improving and Maintaining Resident Health & Wellness
• Creating Safe Environments through Leadership Rounding
• Implementing Rapid Evaluation Teams to effectively respond in unexpected or urgent situations

In addition to advocacy, we continue to work collectively to strive to reach our Safe Care goal of eliminating preventable harm in the course of caregiving. 

If you are not actively engaged in Safe Care, we encourage you to contact Julie Apold, Vice President of Quality & Performance Excellence, to learn how you can get involved. If you participated in Safe Care but may not have been as active during COVID-19, now is an excellent time to revisit your progress on the 5 Safe Care Actions using the Safe Care Assessment Tool and create an action plan to address critical opportunities for improvement.