Congratulations to our winners of the quarterly ‘Good Catch’ Awards!  

The Good Catch Awards highlight individuals, groups or departments who demonstrate their commitment to keeping patients safe by reporting a near miss. A ‘good catch’ (or near miss) is an event or situation that could have resulted in harm but did not reach the patient because of chance or timely intervention. Reporting these events can help to identify gaps in order to prevent future adverse events from happening.

Chrysta was working in Diagnostic Imaging when she noticed that the Meditech order for MRI indicated that the patient did not have a pacemaker when, in fact, the patient did.  Unknowingly scanning a patient with a pacemaker can result in serious injury or even death. Chrysta notified the Emergency Department nurse regarding the error and further investigation was completed of the MRI compatibility with the pacemaker.

Rose is a PSW on the 3A Surgery Inpatient Unit. While performing vital signs on an in-patient she noticed he was becoming more agitated. Aware of an empty bed adjacent to another patient assigned 1:1 supervision, Rose advocated for the patient and suggested to the Primary RN that he might benefit from a bed move so the 1:1 could notify the nurse of any escalating behaviour. The bed move was approved and a couple of hours later, the 1:1 notified staff of escalating aggressive behaviour requiring a Code White.  The team acted quickly and the patient was settled, without any harm to him or the staff involved.

On his way home at the end of his shift, Security Parking Guard Azhar noticed a gas smell coming from behind the Medical Building.  He returned to work and alerted a security roamer guard and then the two guards returned to investigate and determined that an immediately noticeable smell was coming from grey pipes next to the generator. The Manager of Facilities and the Tom Jones superintendent were contacted and it was determined there was no immediate emergency. Enbridge was notified and on site within four hours to inspect and repair loose screws on the connectors at the regulator on the pipe system.

Thank you to all for your diligence and dedication to safety. Each recipient has been awarded a certificate and gift cards to local businesses.

New winners will be selected every quarter. Continue submitting your near misses for a chance to win! Near miss reports are submitted through the Incident Learning System (patient safety incidents). Click on the ‘safety reporting’ icon from your Novell home page, or go to the iNtranet and choose ‘Safety Reporting’ under ‘Informational’.

For more information, contact Terry Fodë, Patient Safety Improvement Specialist (terry.fode@tbh.net).