Bay Pines VA Continues Seeking Improvement on Journey Toward HRO
At Bay Pines VA Healthcare System, the staff are constantly working toward becoming a High Reliability Organization (HRO), which requires placing effective operations and patient safety above all else.
In furtherance of that goal, Bay Pines VA’s HRO Lead Dana Ingram recently attended the VA’s Art of Leading Change for HRO Implementers course.
The program was open to staff from VA Healthcare Systems across the Nation and, of the 22 attendees, Ingram was the only person within the VA Sunshine Healthcare Network (VISN 8) who was selected to attend. Prior to attending the three-day, in-person portion of the course, participants attended seven pre-series meetings to ensure they were fully equipped to participate.
“This program involved intense workshops and productive interactions with other HRO implementers,” Ingram shared. “During my time there, we really focused on enhancing interpersonal effectiveness and empowering teams. It was great to be fully immersed in an HRO-focused environment.”
Additionally, participants reviewed tools for leading self, leading others, and leading change. One of the primary areas of focus was the importance of “knowing your why”. On each day of the course, attendees received an opportunity to share with their peers what drives them to cultivate a culture of safety.
“I started out here as a volunteer when I was 14 years old and I always swore that I was going to come back to the VA because it just really touched my heart,” Ingram, who is a registered nurse by trade, shared. “I feel so grateful to be able to serve the people who served our country and help implement operational changes that positively impact them.”
Despite the rewarding nature of her work, Ingram acknowledges the challenges that come with implementing organizational change.
“For us to get to zero harm, we have to have hard conversations. We have to foster psychological safety, and we have to create a just culture,” Ingram shared. “Moving the needle forward requires involvement from everybody, so it’s going to take time. But, in the nearly four years since Bay Pines VA began our journey toward HRO, we have noticed a shift.”
Ingram continued “Our safety reporting has increased, and we’ve noticed that people are a lot more comfortable speaking up, which means we are making progress toward fostering psychological safety, which allows us to view errors as opportunities for learning and improvement.”
Ingram’s goal is to use the best practices she gleaned from fellow change-leaders to dive deeper into Bay Pines VA’s commitment to provide Veterans with the high-quality care they’ve earned and deserve. While it is true that leaders set the tone, safety is everyone’s responsibility.
“I think the foundational principles of high reliability encourage staff, and remind them of their why,” Ingram said. “At its core, this journey is all about servant leadership. We want to make sure Veterans are safe and HRO is how we accomplish that.”