Patient Safety Caravan lessons learned |
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Issue Name |
Problem/Success |
Impact |
Recommendation |
PS caravan printed educational materials |
Challenge: The Project Manager (PM) (who will implement the Patient Safety Caravan) was not fully engaged in the caravan educational materials printing process. |
We had a shortage of printed materials, which affected the time frame of the project. |
- PM must be fully engaged in all printing contract processes and plan the printing time schedule accordingly.
- Digitalize all the educational materials.
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The process took to build the Educational Materials |
Success: we had a successful process for building an acceptable patient empowerment educational material, which was built based on best practice reliable resources and then customized to fit our culture then shared and reviewed with patients and their families done by the SPSC team. |
Minor or no modification was needed on the content. |
Always plan quality standards into the project plan. This helps avoid delays and cost overruns. |
The educational materials content (volume and language) |
Challenge: it was raised by some patients and/or the public that the content of the materials was too long and difficult. They suggest shortening it, add more graphics, and simplify the languages of the contents. |
We had to rewrite the content and redesign it, by formulating a Focus Group from both healthcare providers and patients who participated actively in adding valuable comments, which affected the time frame of the project. |
We advise using the Co-design, Co-Produce, Co- Assess, Co- deliver Approach into the project plan. |
Digitalize the patient empowerment educational materials |
Success: some patients, their families, and/or healthcare providers suggest digitalizing the educational materials. Therefore, we digitalized the educational materials into both forms (PDF flyers, and LCD TV screens posters). |
It helped to expand SPSC outreach to many healthcare institutions by displaying digital posters on their LCD TV screens. |
We advise using different channels to deliver the message to the patients and their families by:
- Utilizing volunteers to speak to the patients and empower them.
- Sharing a barcode that contains all the educational materials electronically.
- Sharing the digital educational materials with the healthcare institution to display them regularly on their LCD TV screens.
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Caravan volunteer's communication skills |
Success: Caravan volunteers faced a problem when delivering the message about PE to the patients and their families because they had a lack of communication skills and public speaking. |
This affected the delivery of the message by having miscommunication and misunderstanding of the main goal of the PS caravan. |
- Always Co-design, Co-Produce, Co- Assess, and Co- deliver with Project Stakeholders (ex. volunteers).
- Recruit some volunteers to deliver the message to the patients from the same hospital, as they get used to communicating with patients and this is already considered part of their daily tasks.
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Diversity of accents and/or languages between the speaker and the patient. |
Challenge: the PM and some volunteered Medical Students faced difficulties in communicating with some patients and/or their families who had different accents or languages. |
That issue interrupted the delivery of the message of empowering patients and their families.
This allowed the project Manager to setup Volunteers Selection Criteria.
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Setup Volunteers Selection Criteria and take into consideration the accent and/or languages of the speaker and the patient. |
Reward Plan |
Success: There was an award plan for:
- Healthcare institutions for hosting and supporting the PS caravan, by providing Certificates and social media recognition.
- Volunteers for their contribution to delivering the message, by providing Certificates.
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Toward the end of the project, morale was high among the project team. There was increased demand, and more hospitals were asked to conduct the PS caravan. |
The PM should communicate and plan the incentives/recognition program for every PS caravan. |
Volunteer's No-Show |
Challenge: There was a recruitment plan for volunteers which include (individuals and Groups). Volunteers No-Show was noticed by the project manager frequently only with individuals. |
During some visits, some volunteers apologized or did not show up, which caused canceling the visit. |
Setup Volunteers Selection Criteria which include:
- Recruiting volunteers from Identified and well-established Volunteers Groups.
- Recruiting volunteers from healthcare providers within the same healthcare facility.
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Return on Investment (ROI)
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Success: utilizing volunteers was a source of Return on Investment (ROI) by achieving shared Goals between SPSC and Hospitals that are willing to implement the PS caravan but have a shortage of staff. Medical Students are also required by their universities to submit volunteer hours. |
Toward the end of the project the calculation of Return on Investment (ROI)as the following:
5000 Volunteer hours
250,000 Saudi Riyal ROI
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The PM should think of saving money and utilize the available resources using a win-win situation. |
Implementing PS Caravan during the COVID-19 pandemic |
Challenge: A risk was not registered, which affected the implementation of the PS Caravan, therefore stopped conducting it Onsite due to infection control precautions. |
We had to cancel the On-Site visits in the year 2020, therefore we worked on digitizing the whole content |
Always consider external impacts on the project cost and schedule. This must be continuous throughout the project lifecycle.
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