Safety briefing and huddles

These are simple, easy-to-use tools that frontline staff can use to share information about potential safety problems and concerns such as;

• medication safety issues,
• falls,
• identification of deteriorating patients,
• equipment failures, and
• infections

These issues may affect patients and staff on a daily basis and by using safety briefings and huddles they can help increase staff awareness of patient safety issues, create an environment where information can be openly shared and make patient safety an integral part of daily work. Safety briefings should last only a few minutes, and do not require a formal meeting. Staff should also share any ideas for solutions to patient safety problems.

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) provide tips on conducting safety briefings -http://www.ihi.org/resources/Pages/Changes/ConductSafetyBriefings.aspx 

Huddles enable teams to have frequent but short meetings so that they can stay informed, review work, make plans, and keep momentum to move ahead rapidly. They allow fuller participation from front-line staff and bedside caregivers, who often struggle to attend longer team meetings.

Further information on safety huddles is available on the IHI website - http://www.ihi.org/resources/Pages/Tools/Huddles.aspx