Shared Voices (A Framework for Patient and Employee Safety in Healthcare)

In Shared Voices, author and entrepreneur Heidi Raines shows how to systematically ensure the safety of patients and staff at healthcare facilities. Most medical errors occur because of flawed systems, not reckless practitioners, and systems can learn from errors. A just culture of care that protects everyone is possible through a framework of near-miss and incident reporting, equitable follow-up, analysis, and learning.

Heidi, the founder and CEO of Performance Health Partners, has dedicated her career to designing solutions for healthcare organizations in need of knowledge and technology to deliver safe, equitable, and quality care. In this book, she argues that the way to foster more safety in healthcare facilities is to create organizational structures centered around reporting incidents and near-misses, then use systems thinking to resolve and prevent issues.

And the best path to do this is to give voices to all healthcare workers by encouraging them to speak out and report observations about their work. Active staff engagement not only keeps patients and employees safe, but it also combats burnout and turnover.

As points of care grow and training levels vary, it is paramount for healthcare leaders to establish a framework that sets caregivers up for success at every level and in every type of healthcare organization. Modernization may seem labored at first, but its longer-term results—including overall reduction in serious safety events, and the saving of lives—are ultimately the drivers of innovation.

Shared Voices is Heidi Raines’ latest contribution to the world of healthcare patient and employee safety. She holds a Preceptor Faculty position at Tulane University’s Master of Health Administration program and serves as Board President of the American College of Healthcare Executives Women’s Healthcare Executive Network. Raines has received awards for innovation and executive leadership and was named one of the Top 100 Influential Entrepreneurs in Technology.