UMHS Commitment to Safety

The University of Michigan Health System is committed to, and responsible for, providing a safe environment for patients, visitors, and staff. We recognize that our staff and faculty strive to deliver excellent care; that health care is provided in a complex environment with systems and checks and balances in place to decrease the risk of error; and that no system, in and of itself, can wholly prevent errors from occurring. We share the goal of continuous learning from daily events and from mishaps that have occurred.

To achieve a safe environment for patients, their families, and our staff, we are committed to the following principles:

• A non-punitive, trusting environment must be created and maintained where errors, adverse consequences of care, and "near misses" can be reported confidentially.
• Each employee plays a critical role in identifying, reporting and resolvingconditions that may pose a potential hazard to patients or staff. Actions include sharing with other units the potential problem and solution, and reporting problems to supervisors responsible for ensuring resolution.
• All events, or potential events, that compromise patient or staff safety provide an opportunity to learn to prevent future occurrences.
• New information or changes in process resulting from analysis will be communicated to staff in a timely manner.

We recognize the important role that information systems, medication delivery systems and other technologic advances play in providing care to patients; we will use this technology to improve safety and prevent errors.

June 26, 2002