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O U T P AT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 4
The safety trainer was the centerpiece of her facility's heightened
efforts to safeguard its patients. After the initial training session, every
department and every staff member had 3 days of training. "We had to
commit a lot of hours and a lot of money up front while at the same
time trying to run a busy surgery center," says Ms. Fairchild. "But we
definitely felt it was important."
How important? Occasionally, she and her staff are reminded. "We
had a near-miss a couple of months ago," she says. "But our training
prevented us from making an error that day. Later, we thought back to
how we used to do things, and we realized that if we didn't have these
[new] processes in place, we would have made that mistake." And
incurred who-knows-how-much in potential liability? "When some-
thing like that happens, it emphasizes to the whole staff the impor-
tance of all the redun-
dant things they do to
ensure safety," says
Ms. Fairchild.
A large component
of the training, which
was done through
LifeWings, was about
empowering people.
"It starts at the pre-
surgical acceptance
level," says Ms.
Fairchild. "The [staff]
at the front desk know
that if they see a
patient drinking water
in the waiting room,