JBSA-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas -- Brooke Army Medical Center staff and visitors highlighted the importance of patient safety during an event March 12 to commemorate Patient Safety Awareness Week.
"The fact that we are all here talking about patient safety is critical," said Col. Evan Renz, BAMC commander. "We can't talk about it enough. In fact, the point of almost every one of our safety programs is that it has to be inculcated in everything that we do, constantly."
The event featured guest speaker Dr. Charles Holshouser Jr., the co-founder of the Louise H. Batz Patient Safety Foundation, who spoke about his sister's death due to errors after the surgery at a community hospital.
Holshouser said his sister went into the hospital in 2009 for knee replacement surgery. Even though the surgery went well, a combination of preventable medical errors led to her death.
"It was a terrible loss … she never got to see her grandchild born two months later. She missed out on watching her four grandchildren grow up, play volleyball and football and all the things that grandchildren do," Holshouser said. "It was a significant loss for her husband and for our family."
Afterwards, Louise's daughter Laura tried to understand how and why this happened to her mother.
"As we told our story, almost every person who heard it could recount a similar personal story of a family member or friend," Holshouser said.
After the loss of their loved one, the family started the Louise H. Batz Patient Safety Foundation.
There are a staggering number of injuries and deaths related to preventable medical errors each year in the United States. According to a 2013 study in the Journal of Patient Safety, the true number of premature deaths associated with preventable harm to patients was estimated at more than 400,000 per year.
According to the foundation's website, the goal is to open the pathways of communication between patients, doctors, nurses and hospitals in an effort to enhance hospital safety and prevent adverse events. The foundation aims to create awareness and literature that is accessible and easy for the patient to understand.
Holshouser, who was in the Army, recounted the time he spent at BAMC. He also praised the quality of care our military community receives on a daily and hourly basis at BAMC.
"I want to express my gratitude to all of you for what you do every day, because it means a lot to a lot of people and families," he said to the hospital staff. "We in the civilian community in San Antonio feel closely connected to you all. We know what you all do and we appreciate it, and don't ever forget that."
BAMC continues to strive to become a High Reliability Organization putting safe, quality care at the forefront. This Army Medicine-wide journey is a commitment to continuous improvement and compliance, with an expectation of achieving zero preventable harm.
This commitment extends to personal and workplace safety, which leads to increased patient safety and quality outcomes.
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