PEARL HARBOR, HI.  –   Naval Health Clinic Hawaii (NHCH) put a spooky spin on patient safety this fall. The NHCH Quality Management Department (QMD) organized a ‘Room of Errors’ patient safety training activity with a Halloween theme for clinic staff.

Personnel across the command put their patient safety knowledge to the test on October 29 and October 30, 2020, as they navigated through six staged patient medical and dental exam rooms at Branch Health Clinic (BHC) Makalapa and BHC Kaneohe Bay. Participants were to identify the simulated safety hazards that could potentially harm patients in real world settings.

“We wanted to make this training personal and realistic, so we incorporated events submitted via the Joint Patient Safety Reporting System and brought them to life,” explained Capt. Andrea Petrovanie-Green, Quality Management Department Head at NHCH. “Examples included expired medications, unprotected personally identifiable information, improper disposal of sharps, unlabeled syringes, and unattended Common Access Cards to name a few.”

In the spirit of friendly competition, contestants competed individually or in small groups to determine who could identify and record the most errors in each room in five minutes or less. The training event was held for two days with designated time slots for participants to allow for maximum participation while ensuring appropriate social distancing. At the end of the two days, the score sheets were tallied and the individual(s) or team(s) who were able to identify the most errors received a prize.

Keeping with the Halloween theme, props such as skeletons, cobwebs, spiders, fake blood, and enthusiastic real actors were incorporated into the simulation to make for a fun training event.

“It’s always a bonus to be able to take a break from the day-to-day and attend a fun training, rather than another Power-Point lecture,” said Petrovanie-Green. “Feedback {from participants} has been overwhelmingly positive with requests for similar training in the future.”

Active Duty Navy Hospital Corpsman and civilian healthcare staff from both medical and dental departments enjoyed completing the training.

“I felt like the Room of Errors training was an excellent opportunity for Sailors to have an exciting and fun time finding patient safety issues that are commonly overlooked,” said Hospital Corpsman Second Class Christopher Moran, Surgical Technologist at Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command Pearl Harbor. “The QMD team went above and beyond to give it the classic haunted house feel without being too crazy. Even though the majority of the errors were obvious, I enjoyed trying to find all of them! Next year, I hope that more people will have the opportunity and they can hold the training on more days!”

Beyond the Halloween decorations and props, the NHCH QMD generated this learning opportunity to remind staff to keep patient safety at the forefront, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic and the competing priorities the crisis brings.

“The purpose of the training is to get back to the basics,” said Petrovanie-Green. “Unfortunately, battling the COVID-19 health crisis created a need to reinforce the ‘basics’. The event aimed to help reset our focus on ‘Brilliant on the Basics’ and our continuous readiness to provide the highest standards of care to our force and beneficiaries.”

The QMD used the ‘Room of Errors’ training as a means of engaging, educating, and equipping patient-care teams to put evidence-based practices in place across the organization. NHCH and the Military Health System as a whole share the strategic goal to promote a culture of safety and provide safe, quality care to warfighters and their families.