Healthcare Safety Toolkit Library

Kathy Matzka is a consultant, speaker and writer specializing in credentialing and professional staff resources for healthcare organizations. She provides services in the following areas: staff support and training, accreditation preparedness, process review, educational programs, newsletters and data collection tools.

A collection of resources from The Joint Commission Center for Transforming Care that provides the framework for organizing an organization's journey toward high reliability. The framework focuses on three areas: leadership commitment, safety culture and an empowered workforce.

High reliability organizations display certain characteristics. This information on AHRQ's PSNet site describes the five characteristics of highly reliable organizations.

A learning module for staff, provided by The Joint Commission, to educate on infection control principles in long-term care organizations.

Description of each characteristic of high reliabilty organizations provided by the VA National Center for Patient Safety.

Article that provides a list of 10 ideas to improve communication with patient handoffs.

Reducing the risk of encountering an active shooter situation is important to any business, especially healthcare. These resources provide tools on how to plan what to do in the event of an active shooter/violent situation.

Acitve shooter events are increasing more and more across the U.S. and the experts have developed tools to help the lay person identify a potential active shooter as a risk reduction strategy.

Healthcare organizations should take the possiblity of an active shooter event occuring in their facility very seriously. These resources provide key tactics on managing violent and disruptive behavior as a risk reduction process.

Active shooter training is vital for all staff in a healthcare organization as they are the eyes and ears of the facility. These resources help ensure staff are trained and prepared to address violent/aggressive behavior/situations.