Joint Commission: New blog post examines steps for developing a reporting culture

Editor's Note

A new blog post featured in the Joint Commission’s "High Reliability Healthcare" examines four essential steps for developing a reporting culture and why they are important.

The steps are:

• Establish trust: Leaders should help create personal responsibility by establishing clear performance expectations for employees in an environment where there is no fear of negative consequences for reporting mistakes.
• Encourage reporting: Staff need to know that leadership wants to hear from them, and they need guidance on what can and should be reported.
• Eliminate fear of punishment: Because employees won’t make a report if they think they will be punished, it’s important to reinforce the idea that reporting allows an organization to learn from mistakes and make improvements.
• Examine errors, close calls, and unsafe conditions: All reports should be investigated, and it’s invaluable to harvest the data and use it to prevent future errors.