Atrium Health: Prioritizing a Just Culture for Patient and Staff Safety

Atrium Health Floyd Polk Medical Center (Atrium Health), a 25-bed, critical access hospital located in Cedartown, Georgia, was one of six organizations selected to participate in the 2022-2023 Rural Health Provider Transition Project (RHPTP).

During their year-long engagement in RHPTP, Atrium Health worked with RHPTP’s technical assistance (TA) consultants on financial and operational improvements, and on developing a strategy and infrastructure to improve patient safety in preparation for participation in alternative payment and care delivery models. 

“Participating in RHPTP has helped keep the Atrium team on task and accountable with teams and meetings, helping to refocus on creating a just culture, which also lends itself to safety goals for the total population.”

Tifani Kinard, Atrium Health

Below are some of Atrium Health’s top accomplishments and early outcomes made possible through their RHPTP participation.

Top Accomplishments:

• Developed and implemented an education campaign focused on increasing staff knowledge of Just Culture

• Educated providers on the new option within their EMR, to select Atrium Health Floyd Polk as a referral location 
• Reimplemented their emergency department transfer tracking process via EPIC, reviewing data and findings during medical staff meetings
• Achieved 99% inpatient medication/patient scanning 
• Developed and implemented staff education focused on fall prevention, resulting in a 29% reduction in falls from 2022 to 2023
• Developed a review process to recognize trends in patient safety with the help of a new security director 
• Established a workplace violence team 
• Developed and implemented annual nursing education on the Eight Rights of Medication Administration 
• Implemented fall-risk assessments upon patient admission 
• Increased stakeholder engagement in fall prevention by creating a market-wide Falls Team 
• Addressed error identification and preventative measures with increased engagement from the pharmacy department 
• Adopted plain-language safety codes that visitors and staff can easily understand

Atrium Health has several additional patient safety goals and initiatives in place, many of which are driven by their Quality and Accreditation Liaison and new Market Security Director. Next steps in adopting recommendations from RHPTP consultants at Stratis Health and Stroudwater Associates include developing an internal marketing plan to promote outpatient services, tracking referrals by provider and service, and combining efforts with a multidisciplinary, physician-based clinic to add additional services in their market. The hospital has found it helpful to re-evaluate incident reports and acute care facility readmissions, identifying overall safety trends, gaps in environmental safety and the need for additional staff education. In addition to the recently hired wound care nurse, Atrium Health encourages this certification to other staff RNs. The hospital has emphasized reviewing its current processes and procedures in many areas of patient safety over the past year and plans to conduct a competency gap analysis to further its progress. 

The RHPTP team is so excited to see Atrium Health Floyd Polk prioritize patient safety, a complex area of focus that requires dedication and persistence from all health care teams. The hospital has made amazing progress, and it is clear to see how their ability to foster staff engagement and overall culture has driven communication and motivation for improvement between departments. We look forward to future achievements from Atrium Health and hope its accomplishments and continued work serves as inspiration for other rural clinics and hospitals wanting to improve patient safety and culture as well. Congratulations to Atrium Health Floyd Polk Medical Center!