Jane Merkley

This week is Patient Safety Week and I would like to take the opportunity to celebrate the commitment from all of you to prioritize safe care. Throughout the organization, we recognize that safety underpins every interaction that we have with patients. From the moment patients walk through our doors, to their continued recovery in their community, our people go above and beyond to ensure that their safety is prioritized. It’s not always easy. We work in a fast-paced, high pressure environment, with a complex patient population.  A perception of risk can be fleeting, and it can be tempting to dismiss it to deal with a seemingly more pressing issue. Of course, there is no more pressing issue than identifying risk when we see it and I am grateful to all of you who have spoken up and made our campuses safer for everyone.   We are seeing the rewards of the hard work and resolute determination, in particular from our front-line clinicians, and we will continue to work towards eliminating preventable harm at Sinai Health.

There are so many safety initiatives to be proud of this year.  From the launch of our new safety reporting system (the SAFER system), to a falls reduction initiative at Bridgepoint that has achieved outstanding results, we continue to deliver on new, innovative solutions to find safer, more effective ways of serving our patients.

Throughout this week, we are hosting events and learning opportunities at both campuses and will be highlighting just a few of your accomplishments throughout our communications channels. I hope that you will take the time to participate by taking a patient safety survey, attending a pizza lunch and learn on disclosure and safety reporting, or congratulating one of the safety award recipients that will be announced daily this week. We are all deeply invested in patient safety so please help us to raise the profile of this important work by participating.

Thank you,

Jane