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| The Price of Freedom is Eternal Vigilance - John F. Kennedy |
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HAA Ensuring Safety Of Patients, Workers |
| Publishing date: 08.09.2006 11:58 |
The Health Authority of Anguilla (HAA) has undertaken to put measures in place to control risks in all areas of the health services to ensure the safety of patients and workers. A day and a half training workshop was held towards that end, at the Soroptimist Day Care Centre on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, for senior managers and other staff in the various health care departments.
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L-R: Meridith Gumbs and Diane Layton
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The workshop and training facilitator was Diane Layton of Chimera Consulting Group Limited of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. She was assisted by her husband and partner, Charles Layton. Both of them have been in Anguilla over the past three weeks discussing with various persons matters relating to risk management issues and looking at what arrangements were in place. The training workshop is a result of that risk assessment work.
Acting Chief Executive Officer of the HAA, Meridith Gumbs, told the participants at the brief opening ceremony that the risk assessment and workshop had do with preparations for the upcoming accreditation of the island’s health services. “One of the requirements is that we ensure that our environment is one where risks are reduced to a minimum and that we have in place a plan to manage risks that can occur in all our departments and at all levels,” Mrs Gumbs explained.
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Health Care workers at workshop
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“We all recognise by now that a risk management assessment is an important step in protecting our workers and the organisation in general,” she went on. “It helps to focus on risks that have potential to cause real harm. In many instances, simple precautionary measures can readily control risks: for example, ensuring that spillages are cleaned up promptly so that co-workers, patients and visitors do not slip; or cupboard drawers are kept closed to ensure that people do not trip…
“It is essential that together we recognise that risk management is our business and our efforts to combat risk should be positive and collaborative. This approach will not only help to prevent us from breaching conditions of our insurance plan, but would greatly reduce the occurrence of sentinel events and near misses that can cause harm to employees, patients and our clients.”
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Health Care workers at workshop
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Mrs. Layton, the workshop facilitator, has a Master’s of Science degree in Health Planning and Administration and her primary interest in health care over the years has been planning and risk management. She ran the Health Care Risk Management Society for the Province of British Columbia for a number of years and has acted as a consultant in her jurisdiction.
“I have really enjoyed my trip here. It has been a fabulous experience,” she told the participants. “I hope you feel free to participate openly in the workshop. It is a joint learning process so that is what we are hoping to accomplish.”
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Health Care workers at workshop
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The risk assessment work is part of a process to have the Anguilla Health Services accredited by the Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation in December this year.
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