Improvement in hospital organization culture allows more patients to survive heart attacks, according to a study in BMJ Quality & Safety.
The findings result from Yale University's Leadership Saves Lives program, which worked with hospitals to test strategies on improving patient care through culture change.
"Now we can see that organizational culture can in fact be changed in positive ways, often with very little expense to the hospital," Leslie Curry, PhD, the study's lead author, said in a Yale School of Public Health report.
The study described specific strategies to improve organizational culture, emphasizing team collaboration. The team working as a cohesive unit contributes to saving a heart attack victim, Dr. Curry noted. Of 10 hospitals in the program, six that showed positive organizational culture changes saw faster improvement in heart attack survival rates.
"We saw that if hospital administration was open to communication and suggestions from employees — without any fear of retaliation — the team collaboration and success improved," Dr. Curry added.
The LSL team is creating a toolkit of strategies and resources for cultural change for hospitals nationwide.