Rodgers emphasizes what matters most about patient care during Patient Safety Awareness Week

Jennifer Rodgers, RN, MSc, MBE, deputy nurse director of Corporate and Community Services at Greater Glasgow and Clyde of the National Health Service (NHS) in Scotland, UK, was honored as the 2022 Safety Scholar at the start of the 12th annual Patient Safety Awareness Week (PSAW) at Mass General for Children (MGfC) from March 13-19. During Grand Rounds on March 15, Rodgers presented her talk, “Improving Patient Safety and Person-Centered Care.”

In her presentation, Rodgers shared her efforts regarding What Matters to You (WMTY), an international, person-centered care movement inspired by the 2012 New England Journal of Medicine’s article, “Shared Decision Making: The Pinnacle of Patient-Centered Care,” by Michael Barry, MD, director of the Informed Medical Decisions Program within the Health Decision Sciences Center, and Susan Edgman-Levitan, PA, executive director of the John D. Stoeckle Center for Primary Care Innovation, both at Massachusetts General Hospital. The underlying principle of WMTY is to “Ask. Listen. Do,” with the intention of shifting power to patients and families who know best about the support or care that they need from various providers. WMTY aims to help care teams better understand what is most important to patients and families, leading to better patient relationships and patient experiences. So far, WMTY has spread to 49 countries around the world and integrated into workflows in hospitals, primary care practices, behavioral health services, substance use treatment programs and social service organizations in communities.

“In medicine, we’ve found two different power dynamics of old and new. In the old dynamic, only a few people make decisions and it’s pushed down from the top. It’s more transactional, whereas the new dynamic is built on relationships,” said Rodgers. When patient care has a foundation of strong, trusting relationships, it leads to better outcomes for patients, family and providers, and improves a patient’s experience while they are at the hospital for an outpatient visit, inpatient stay or procedure.

When decisions are made by many and discussions are open, honest and have a shared purpose, it is much safer for patients,” said Rodgers. “We tell our nurses and doctors that every patient is the only patient and they know themselves best, and through what they tell us, we can better care for them.”

Relationships also extend to the ones that develop among providers, in which everyone values care and compassion, dignity and respect, openness and honesty and quality and teamwork. “We learn from excellence as much as we do from failure,” said Rodgers. “It’s important to not only learn from past mistakes, but to also celebrate what went well.”

In 2019, Rodgers was recognized as Scotland’s Woman of the Year in recognition of her outstanding work in children’s medicine. She also received the Scottish Nurse of the Year Award at the Scottish Health Awards in 2013 and, in 2012, was the first pediatric nurse to complete the Scottish Patient Safety Fellowship.

Other 2022 PSAW events included the following events:

- The Patient Safety Star Awards Ceremony, in which many MGfC staff were recognized for their efforts to “speak up” and improve the safety and quality of care provided to pediatric patients. This year’s Safety Stars were:

Pediatric Hematology and Oncology (Developed an acute care plan)

• Karen Sylvanowicz, RN
• Dannielle Eramia, RN
• Caroline Krilovich, RN
• Patricia Scott, RN
• Meghan Carnell, RN
• Megan Murphy Flood, RN
• Cathleen Durham, RN, MSN, CPN
• Erin Kivlehan, RN

Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) (Enabled a patient at the end of life to be with family

• Sarah Buck, RN
• Kim Murphy, RN
• Dawn McLaughlin, RN
• Allison Woods, RN
• Sylvia Osterizik, PharmD
• Lisa Reynolds, RN
• Katy Sevitella, RN
• Kim Cheevers, RN
• Kathy O’Gara. RN

PICU (Provided a special moment to child and family)

• Kathy O’Gara, RN
• Erik Nasel, RRT
• Kathleen Figurido, RRT
• Cate Naber, MD
• Michael Salt, MD
• Josephine Lok, MD
• Robert Seger, MBA
• Shaun O’Halloran
• Kimberly Cheevers, RN

Oral Concentrations workgroup (Standardized liquid medication concentrations)

• Bryan Hayes, PharmD, DABAT, FAACT, FASHP
• Christopher Fortier, PharmD, FASHP
• Esther Israel, MD, CPPS
• Jason Ciaramitaro, PharmD, BCPPS
• Katherine DeSanctis, PharmD
• Sarah Chin, PharmD
• Laurin Flynn, PharmD
• Tanya John, PharmD, CPPS
• Caren Harris, RN, MSN, CNP, CPPS

- The keynote address and panel discussion, “Charting a new course: Cross industry partnerships to address gaps in community health, quality, equity and patient information.” The plenary speaker is Garth Graham, MD, MPH, director and global head of Healthcare and Public Health at Google. The panel discussion is moderated by Elizabeth Mort, MD, MPH, senior vice president of Quality & Safety and chief quality officer at Mass General and the Massachusetts General Physicians Organization and panelists include Joseph Bettancourt, MD, MPH, senior vice president of Equity and Community Health at Mass General and Gregg Meyer, MD, MSc, president of Community Division and executive vice president of Value-Based Care at Mass General Brigham.

- Presentations on patient safety from MGfC and Mass General staff:

• “My patient is talking about suicide. What should I do?” by Mary Susan Convery, MSW, LICSW, director of the Social Work Clinical Leadership Program at Mass General; Chaia Bekefi, MSW, LICSW, an outpatient clinical social worker at Mass General; and Bonnie Michelman, CPA, CHAP, executive director of Police and Security at Mass General and MGB
• “Hot debriefs after OR events: Supporting each other” by Jeffrey Cooper, PhD, executive director emeritus of the Center for Medical Simulation at Mass General; Haytham Kaafarani, MD, MPH, director of Patient Safety & Quality and surgeon in Adult Trauma and Emergency Services at Mass General; Abraham Sonny, MD, an anesthesiologist at Mass General; and Catherine O’Malley, RN, MSN, CNOR, quality assurance staff specialist in Perioperative Services at Mass General.
• “The silent safety risks of MRI” by Jeremy Herrington, clinical director of MRI and Off-Campus Imaging and Kelly Cahill, MRI operations manager in Imaging at Mass General.