UNC Health is celebrating National Patient Safety Awareness Week (PSAW) March 14-20!

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 134 million adverse events occur each year in hospitals. Studies suggest that as many as 400,000 deaths occur in the United States each year as a result of errors or preventable harm. Patient safety is everyone’s job and we are One Great Team working together to improve patient safety. The goal of PSAW is to recognize everyone’s role regarding patient safety, connect the work we do back to our patients, celebrate work preventing errors, and reinforce our safety culture.

Below you will find events we are hosting across the Medical Center, as well as ways to celebrate PSAW in your local area – please join us and share this information with your teams!

• PSAW Tool kit. Click the link (available to UNC employees only) to check out different tools available to celebrate and recognize PSAW in your areas. Examples include a patient safety pledge, crossword puzzles, educational tools, conversation starters, podcasts, videos, and more.
• Tuesday March 16^th from 1-2pm IHI Free Webinar. Click the link to register Workplace Violence: Protecting Health Care Workers | IHI – Institute for Healthcare Improvement
• Wednesday March 17^th from 10:30-11:30am Leaders are going to the Gemba (safety walk) in all areas after Tier III Huddle. Gemba means “the actual place” – where the work is done to create value for a patient or customer. In order to truly understand current operations, leaders go to where the work is happening to hear from frontline coworkers. There will be additional Gemba rounding throughout the week.