An initiative to improve safety on the Skinner Memory Care Unit at Yorkton and District Nursing Home has resulted in safer care for patients, residents and staff.
“It’s about . . . promoting the presence of safety rather than an absence of harm,” said Danielle Bellamy, director of Continuing Care Southeast for the Saskatchewan Health Authority.
In early 2019, a team made up of managers, staff and a family advisor assessed the unit’s safety culture and then developed and implemented tools on the unit (referred to as a neighbourhood) to improve safety. The toolkit helps facilitate discussions on different types of harm and provides an avenue for teams to work through concerns.
The results are exciting.
In the first six months of 2019, the neighbourhood saw a 42 per cent decrease in reported resident harm and a 69 per cent decrease in reported staff injuries, when compared with the same time period in 2017. From December 2018 to June 2019, the use of anti-psychotic drugs on residents who do not have a diagnosis of psychosis dropped 83 per cent.
The neighbourhood’s safety tools and practices have been adopted on a second neighbourhood at the care home and at Gateway Lodge in Canora.
A group of Yorkton staff attend a Canadian Patient Safety Institute learning session in Toronto.
To read more about SHA’s 2019 improvement progress, see
SaskHealth.