UW Medicine shares the concerns voiced by our nurses and clinical staff as well as national organizations following the guilty verdict in the trial of a former nurse at Vanderbilt University Medical Center for a medication error that resulted in a patient’s death.
At UW Medicine, we remain strongly committed to establishing a Just Culture environment where every employee feels empowered to speak up and voice concerns and report errors. We believe this is the best way to address systems issues that contribute to errors and harm while at the same time holding clinicians and staff accountable to our policies and procedures.
We also want to reassure our nurses, clinicians and all staff that the focus of our Just Culture is on identifying system-level opportunities for improvement rather than on finding fault. Please continue to use our tools, such as Patient Safety Net, to report potential or actual patient harm events. Beginning next week, our annual workplace survey will also allow clinicians and staff to assess and help us improve our Culture of Safety at our hospitals and clinics.
Thank you to all of our employees for your dedication to our patients. You will always have our support in providing the highest quality and safest care, while also identifying opportunities for improvement, at UW Medicine.
Sincerely,
Lisa Brandenburg
President, UW Medicine Hospitals & Clinics
Vice President for Medical Affairs
University of Washington
Timothy H. Dellit, MD
Chief Medical Officer, UW Medicine
Executive Vice Dean for Clinical Affairs,
UW School of Medicine and
President, UW Physicians
Cindy Hecker
Chief Executive Officer
UW Medical Center
Cindy Sayre
Chief Nursing Officer
UW Medical Center
Keri Nasenbeny
Chief Nursing Officer
UW Medical Center – Northwest
Sommer Kleweno Walley
Chief Executive Officer
Harborview Medical Center
Jay Sandel
Interim Chief Nursing Officer
Harborview Medical Center
Jeannine Erickson Grinnell
Chief Executive Officer
Valley Medical Center
Theresa Braungardt
Chief Nursing Officer
Valley Medical Center
Debra Gussin
Associate Vice President, Primary Care and Population Health
Executive Director, UW Neighborhood Clinics
Chantal Cayo
Chief Nursing Officer
UW Medicine Primary Care
Jeff Richey
Executive Director
Airlift Northwest
Brenda Nelson
Chief Flight Nurse
Airlift Northwest
Thomas Staiger, MD
Medical Director
UW Medical Center
Santiago Neme, MD
Medical Director
UW Medical Center – Northwest
J. Richard Goss, MD
Medical Director
Harborview Medical Center
James Park, MD
Medical Director
Valley Medical Center
Victoria Fang, MD
Medical Director
UW Medicine Primary Care
Richard Utarnachitt, MD
Medical Director
Airlift Northwest
