Impacts of Huddle Intervention on the Patient Safety Culture of Medical Team Members in Medical Ward: One-Group Pretest-Posttest Design

Abstract

Yi-Hung Lai,1,2 Ming-Ju Wu,3 Hsin-Hua Chen,4,5 Shih-Ping Lin,4,6 Chun-Yi Wu,3,4 Chun-Shih Chin,4,7 Cheng-Hsien Lin,4,8 Sz-Iuan Shiu,4,9 Ying-Cheng Lin,4,9 Hui-Chi Chen,1 Shu-Chin Hou,1 Ching-Wein Chang1 1Department of Nursing, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan; 2Department of Nursing, National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences, Taipei, Taiwan; 3Division of Nephrology, Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan; 4Division of General Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan; 5Division of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan; 6Division of Infection, Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan; 7Division of Chest Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan; 8Division of Hematology and Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan; 9Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, TaiwanCorrespondence: Ching-Wein Chang, Department of Nursing, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, 1650 Taiwan Boulevard Sect. 4, Taichung, 40705, Taiwan, Email [email protected]: A huddle is a short, regular meetings to discuss existing or emerging patient safety issues. Hospital administrators can encourage healthcare staff to voluntarily examine the potential occurrence and severity of risks, thereby enhancing awareness of patient safety. The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of huddle intervention on patient safety culture among medical team members and related factors.Methods: We used a one-group pretest-posttest research design and convenience sampled 109 members of the general internal medicine ward team members from a medical center in central Taiwan. They participated 2 times per week in 15-min huddles from 08:15 to 08:30 in the morning, which lasted for a total of 4 weeks. The process was based on submitted ideas, approved ideas, research ideas and standardization, and data on the safety attitudes questionnaire (SAQ) were collected during the huddles’ intervention pretest and posttest.Results: After the huddle intervention, we found significantly improved scores for safety attitude, teamwork climate (76.49± 16.13 vs 83.26± 13.39, p < 0.001), safety climate (75.07± 16.07 vs 82.63± 13.72, p < 0.001), job satisfaction (73.67± 19.84 vs 83.39± 17.21, p < 0.001), perceptions of management (77.87± 19.99 vs 84.86± 16.03, p < 0.001) and working conditions (78.96± 18.16 vs 86.18± 14.90, p < 0.001). Correlation analyses on the differences between pretest and posttest showed that age had a significant correlation with safety climate (r = 0.22, p = 0.022) and working conditions (r = 0.20, p = 0.035). The number of times to participate in a huddle had a significant correlation with teamwork climate (r = 0.33, p =< .001), safety climate (r = 0.30, p = 0.002), job satisfaction (r = 0.19, p = 0.043), and work conditions (r = 0.28, p = 0.003).Conclusion: Huddles improve clinical team members’ understanding of different dimensions and relate factors of safety attitudes. Implementation of the huddles involved standardized process will help hospital administrators understand the steps to parallel expansion to other wards.Keywords: huddle, patient safety, patient care team

Keywords

• huddle
• patient safety
• patient care team