CO04 | Safety Briefing in the critical area: the experience of the Urgency Medicine of ASL Biella

P. Ariatta, I. Corniati, V. Bissacca, D.S. Di Massimo, F. Bertoncini | ASL Biella, Italy

Background and Aims of the study: Ineffective communication is responsible for more than 60% of adverse events in hospitals; a useful tool to reduce this risk is the Safety Briefing (SB). The SB is a short unit briefing with the aim of improving both the situational awareness of the team and the patient’s safety.
Materials and Methods: After consulting the databases, the SB was introduced in the Urgency Medicine unit of the Hospital of Biella. After having taken charge of the patient through the SBAR method, a short briefing (5 minutes) was held, in which situations posing a risk to the patient’s safety and key information which the whole team needed to know were pointed out. The objective was to intercept adverse events and point out worsening conditions.
Results: The results showed a higher cohesion, communication and continuity when taking charge of the patient. By pointing out to every team member the patients at risk (of falling, of reduced compliance…) it was possible to prevent such events, and/or to intervene timely in case of worsening conditions. Moreover, the SB allowed the team to prevent potential errors while treating the patients.
Conclusions: The SB did not negatively influence the daily organization of the unit; however, the briefing ended up lasting more than 5 minutes. Our future aim is that of summarizing the information and reduce the SB time, so we can match the standards of the literature, and use it in all of our hospital facilities.