Safety is a key performance indicator in all departments. The focus depends on the department. In the hospital or nursing home, those units that provide direct patient care have patient/ resident safety their top priority. The exact indicator of safety will again depend on the unit. Patient/ resident falls are always a top concern. These units could track falls as their KPI. Other units have different perspectives. Materials management on the other hand is concerned about staff injuries due to improper handing of supplies in the warehouse. They would track those incidents.
The key to LEAN daily management is having visual indicators that, at a mere glance, show everyone how successful the unit is in maintaining KPI standards. The illustration on this page is a simple example of what the safety cross could look like. It is an impactful visual indicator of progress. Even if you are not on a LEAN journey, the use of a safety cross is a strong motivator.
How to use the safety cross:
– fill in the current month
– decide on your KPI i.e. falls and write it on the top
– determine when your day starts.
– at the end of the day, if there were no incidents, i.e. falls, color the box corresponding to the date green
– if there was an incident, color the box red and immediately determine a countermeasure to prevent – the incident from occurring again.
– keep 6 running months of charts on display if possible. It is a powerful motivator to ensure the KPI is keep top of mind.
We recommend recording all incidents on a living Pareto chart. There were lots be a subsequent post discussing the development and use of living Pareto charts