Respect: The foundation for quality care

Guest post by Gary S. Kaplan

At Virginia Mason Medical Center, we understand respect must be shown every day, at all levels of our organization, for us to provide the best care and a perfect patient experience. If our physicians, nurses and other team members don't feel valued and respected, this will affect their ability to put the patient first in everything we do.

Lucian L. Leape, M.D., a founder of the National Patient Safety Foundation, has observed that disrespect among hospital employees is "a threat to patient safety because it inhibits collegiality and cooperation essential to teamwork, cuts off communication, undermines morale, and inhibits compliance with and implementation of new practices."

We launched Virginia Mason's Respect for People initiative in 2012, recognizing it is applicable to our strategic priorities (people, quality, service and innovation). Because respect for people is essential to our success as a health system, we also have established it as an organizational goal. >> Read the full post at Hospital Impact