Sentara Healthcare's four-year experience in creating a culture of safety, based on proven techniques from other high reliability industries, has demonstrated that without effective accountability systems, the ability to sustain improvement is elusive. This session will describe the necessary components for creating a culture of safety, and focus on proven strategies for building an effective accountability system. Experience and lessons learned will be described, comparing and contrasting various approaches.

      After this presentation you will be able to:

• Discuss principles of human performance and error prevention, as well as implementation strategies for creating an effective culture of safety.
• Describe the principles of building effective accountability systems that apply to leadership, staff, and physicians.
• List success factors for achieving patient and worker safety, including vertical alignment and operational leaders who are skilled in coaching and building accountability.