The Patient Safety Leadership Academy at the University of Pennsylvania: the first cohort's learning experience.Qual Manag Health Care. 2007 Apr-Jun; 16(2):166-73.QM
BACKGROUND
We based the Patient Safety Leadership Academy (PSLA) on the premise that improving management skills could improve patient safety and employee satisfaction.
STUDY DESIGN
Fellows completed baseline surveys on leadership skills knowledge, patient safety knowledge, and program goals. They completed the same surveys 7 months later at the final PSLA session. The fellows also completed a survey assessing how PSLA improved expertise and comparing PSLA to other patient safety learning opportunities. Matched pairs t tests were used to compare baseline and postprogram results.
RESULTS
Baseline scores indicated appropriateness of focusing on leadership, with average leadership knowledge (2.48) significantly lower than patient safety knowledge (3.22). For patient safety, postprogram results were significant for 8 of 10 questions. All results were significant for leadership. Fellows also rated skills covered by the curriculum on a scale of 1 to 10. For all areas, the median score for knowledge gained was 7. When compared with other patient safety learning experiences, participants rated PSLA as 4 or 5, where 1 indicated the other experience much more valuable and 5 much more valuable.
CONCLUSIONS
PSLA demonstrates that leadership skills are perceived as important by physicians and managers in surgical areas. This study demonstrated that a leadership skills approach to patient safety training could improve knowledge in specific leadership areas and general patient safety.
