Lighthouse projects awarded the German Patient Safety Award 2022

13.05.2022 13:41

On May 12, 2022, the Aktionsbündnis Patient Safety eV (APS) awarded the German Prize for Patient Safety for the ninth time in the special prize and three placement categories. First place went to “Renal Pharmacist” – an establishment and networking of inpatient pharmaceutical care for patients with kidney failure at four locations in Germany by Dr. Sarah Friederike Seiberth, LMU Munich Clinic, doctoral program in clinical pharmacy. The awards were presented as part of the “Patient Safety Night” at the end of the first day of the APS annual conference and accompanied by TV presenter and doctor Dr. Julia Fischer.

Contradiction in the operating room? But of course! Also an introduction to the structured team briefing – absolutely. Just like standardized documentation of medical therapy and improvement of AMTS through optimal collaboration between pharmacists and ward doctors. Dr. Ruth Hecker, chairwoman of the Patient Safety Alliance and specialist in anesthesiology and Chief Patient Safety Officer, Essen University Medical Center: “We had the honor of celebrating four outstanding ideas for improving patient safety. There is something very special about dedicating your work to developing innovative approaches that promote patient safety in your own facility or practice. We are highlighting four examples this year. You receive a prize. We congratulate them from the bottom of our hearts and have created a very special atmosphere to honor them so that we can literally roll out the red carpet in front of them.”

Since 2013, the best three of all submissions have been awarded the German Prize for Patient Safety. Price has received a lot of attention within the healthcare industry.

First place went to award winner Dr. Sarah Friederike Seiberth from the LMU Klinikum München from the doctoral program in clinical pharmacy with “'Renal Pharmacist' - establishment and networking of inpatient pharmaceutical care for renal insufficiency patients at four locations in Germany”.

To improve drug therapy safety (AMTS), a 'Renal Pharmacist' - a pharmacist with a special focus on patients with impaired kidney function - can identify renal drug-related problems through medication analyzes and solve them together with the ward doctor. This service is not yet standard care in German hospitals. For the first time, the project team created a network of renal pharmacists in Germany who support each other professionally and organizationally. The individual projects have been designed specifically for the clinic based on individual needs. The close-meshed, structured pharmaceutical medication analyzes of high-risk patients with renal insufficiency make a significant contribution to a higher patient-individualized AMTS, which is effective across sectors through its inclusion in discharge letters. The project is a living example of close interprofessional collaboration with the aim of increasing patient safety in this vulnerable patient group.

Second place went to Dr. Winfried Alsdorf from the University Hospital Eppendorf, Hamburg, II Medical Clinic, with his “Scientific work: Establishment and validation of standardized documentation of supportive therapy for chemotherapy with high-dose methotrexate”. This chemotherapy is an important part of the treatment for acute leukemia, lymphatic cancer and osteosarcoma. HD-MTX can cause serious, life-threatening side effects, especially if the necessary concomitant therapy is not provided optimally. The use of tools such as a checklist and standardized documentation were able to significantly improve the safety of drug-based tumor therapies.

For third place, the jury was impressed by the work of Dr. Oliver Keil, Katja Brunsmann and Dr. Christiane Beck from the Clinic for Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine at the Hannover Medical School. They applied to “improve patient safety through the introduction of a structured team briefing immediately before the induction of pediatric anesthesia”. With the preoperative anesthesia briefing established, they created a safety culture in the department to avoid complications, which are known to often arise from verbal miscommunication in pediatric anesthesia.

This year, in addition to the three best placed winners, the jury was impressed by another scientific work, to which the jury awarded a special prize, with which the cooperation partners and the Patient Safety Alliance want to promote the excellent work in a special way. The special prize was won by the author team consisting of Dr. Carl Schick, Fabio Walther and Prof. Dr. Michael Heesen from the Cantonal Hospital of Baden (Switzerland) and Prof. Dr. David Schwappach, Dr. Evgeniya Kornilov, Dr. Sharon Orbach-Zinger, Dr. Daniel Katz with a study on the “Effects of a 22-month, multi-stage implementation program on speaking-up behavior in an academic anesthesia department.” Speaking-up - i.e. drawing attention to impending errors during a procedure or treatment - is due to interpersonal and organizational hurdles are still not that easy and are often omitted. In the Department of Anesthesia at the Baden Cantonal Hospital, the project team started a 22-month long multimodal program to establish and strengthen Speaking-Up, which resulted in a clear improvement in attitudes towards Speaking-Up and in the safety climate.

Above all, very practical and future-oriented concepts have prevailed. The ability to implement ideas was the deciding factor. Can the idea be implemented really well? Are there examples of implementation? Can the idea be transferred to other sectors? These criteria were at the forefront of the jury's decisions based on a defined points system.

Information about the prize and the winning projects can be found at: https://www.aps-ev.de/dpfp/.

To the background:

The jury consisted of Peggy Ahl (pharmacist, consultant for quality assurance in the pharmaceutical division, ABDA - Federal Association of German Pharmacists Associations), Dr. Franziska Diel (Head of the Quality of Care Department, editor and co-author of the QEP works, KBV - National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians), Prof. Dr. Wolf-Dieter Ludwig (Chairman of the Drug Commission of the German Medical Association (AkdÄ)), Hannelore Loskill (Federal Chairman of BAG SELBSTHILFE), Martin Meilwes (authorized signatory of GRB Gesellschaft für Risk-Beratung mbH), Birgit Pätzmann-Sietas (presidium member of the German Nursing Council), Xenia von Maltzan (Associate Director Patient Engagement & Health Alliances, MSD Germany.), Univ.-Prof. Dr. Claudia Doris Spies (Director of the Clinic for Anesthesiology with a focus on surgical intensive care medicine at the Charité© Campus Mitte and Campus Virchow Klinikum), Prof. Dr. Christoph Straub (Chairman of the Board of Directors of BARMER), Markus Tannheimer (Management Inworks GmbH). The jury is chaired by Dr. Ruth Hecker: As jury chairwoman, the chairwoman of the APS does not evaluate the submitted works herself, but rather monitors the statutory evaluation procedure and moderates the jury meeting. The patron of the German Prize for Patient Safety is Irmgard Gürkan, deputy chairwoman of the supervisory board of the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin.