Site Visit to Steamfitters Local 449 Inspires Vision for Safer Healthcare Systems
Type: News
Focus Area: Patient Safety
Pictured from left to right: Bradley Tisdale, Karen Feinstein, Lisa George, Carolyn Byrnes, Steven Irwin, Robert Ferguson, Thomas Doran, and Scotland Huber.
Why would a delegation from a healthcare foundation spend an afternoon on the Steamfitters campus in Zelienople? For one thing, they were invited to visit following the Safety Innovation Summit held in Pittsburgh on February 29. Kevin Kelley, a representative for the Steamfitters Local 449, participated in the Labor Panel at the summit and suggested that health care might learn something from the way that the Steamfitters approach safety at their Training and Event centers.
Healthcare workers and steamfitters do have something in common: they both work in high-risk occupations with dangerous chemicals, equipment, and interventions—where precision, diligence, and an “excess of caution” can save their lives and the lives of many others. The Jewish Healthcare Foundation (JHF) team visit hosted by Steamfitter staff Bradley C. Tisdale, HVACR training director, and Thomas Doran, Director of Building Trades Education, highlighted how a deep commitment to safety is reflected in the union’s core philosophy: a contractor who accepts an unsafe workplace is an inferior contractor. Safety and workforce development, retention, and skill preparation are inseparable. An unsafe workplace is an added cost to employers and, therefore, consumers and is, in itself, bad business.
The Steamfitters emphasized the value of having every tradesperson—experienced and novice—equipped with the hands-on training essential to keep every worker safe, to create a safe environment in which to work, to ensure that their coworkers are equally equipped with safety skills training. JHF staff tried to imagine what the Steamfitters would do if they were to create an entity for healthcare workers that was as expansive and thorough as their own campus. Here is the vision.
Several acres would be dedicated to a vastly expanded WISER Institute simulation center. It would include replicas of an ICU room, a pathology lab, a surgical suite, a pharmacy, and other healthcare delivery settings, as well as state-of-the-art classrooms, lecture halls, practice rooms (where surgical teams, for example, could use virtual reality to practice difficult procedures.) It would offer programs for high school and undergraduate students to introduce them to different health careers. It would offer apprenticeship programs for various technical positions within health care, continuous education for those employed now, and special training for supervisors and managers to anticipate and respond to unsafe conditions. Regular classes in the safe use of various essential equipment (e.g., automated medication dispensing machines, defibrillators, ventilators) would update skills. Classes in infection control, wound healing, cleanliness and decontamination, management of “superbugs,” and other important skills would be available to all and mandatory for new employees.
The instruction would incorporate a variety of disciplines, from engineering of all sorts to computer science, informatics, psychology, and more. Because high turnover rates and vacancies are detrimental to effective patient care, programs would address recovery and rehabilitation for substance abuse, depression, family violence, and other personal issues that interfere with work performance. Every experienced worker would be regarded as indispensable. The fundamentals of creating safe systems would be available to all. This would include grounding in data management and transparency regarding mistakes and near misses, the use of trigger tools in the electronic health record, and the identification and appropriate response to “hot spots” for adverse events.
Funding would come from the government, vendors, and corporate suppliers, insurers, private foundations, and donations. Contributions from experienced professionals would not be ruled out; the satisfaction of every worker depends on the safety training and skill set of those around them.
The Steamfitters union training center showed what a commitment to safety looks like; how it gets actualized; how safety and workforce development and retention are inseparable. Is this an unrealistic dream or a prerequisite for creating healthcare systems that are as safe as possible?
Touring Steamfitters Local 449
JHF team tours the Steamfitters Local 449 campus.
From left to right: Lisa George, Karen Feinstein, Robert Ferguson, Carolyn Byrnes, and Scotland Huber.
JHF was hosted by hosted by Steamfitter staff Thomas Doran, left, and Bradley C. Tisdale, HVACR training director.
The hallway of the Steamfitters Local 449 highlights the history of industrial safety.
Thomas Doran shares with the JHF team during the tour.