February 28, 2003

Patient safety showcased, first awards presented

Partners Biomedical Engineering recognized three employees with its first Patient Safety Awards at a special ceremony held Feb. 5. Two award winners — one from the MGH, one from BWH — were chosen from departments or individuals nominated for demonstrating the best qualities of patient safety or identifying a serious patient safety problem and implementing an innovative solution.

Mark Marshall, a senior biomedical equipment technician from the MGH OR/Anesthesia Clinical Engineering Team, and Phillip Levine, a senior biomedical equipment technician at BWH, received the awards. Each award winner received a $500 prize.

A special Lifetime Achievement Award also was bestowed on Ellen Kinnealey, BSN, RN, (at right with Cooper) of MGH Biomedical Engineering. Kinnealey has devoted her career to developing solutions to various issues of medication errors and is widely known at the MGH for her dedication to patient safety related to medical devices.

Next month, Kinnealey will receive a "Solutions Award" at the National Patient Safety Foundation's (NPSF) Annual Congress for leading the implementation of a system for avoiding medication errors related to drug infusions. The NPSF award includes a $10,000 prize, which will be used for development of other safety-related system improvements.

In giving the awards, Jeffrey B. Cooper, PhD, director of Partners Biomedical Engineering, spoke about the importance of creating a culture of patient safety at all Partners institutions. "Having such a culture creates an environment for employees to feel secure about openly discussing errors," he said. "Sharing such important information is then used to create solutions to system problems, which are at the root of most adverse events."