Abstract
The purpose of this presentation is to share our journey of tiered safety huddles in a large academic medical center. This structure enhances staff perception of commitment to safety, promotes open communication, facilitates learning from errors and reinforces leadership support of a safety-focused environment. The nursing implications include improved teamwork, transparency, bidirectional communication, and supporting a culture of safety that engages our frontline staff and leadership.
This initiative, informed by feedback staff surveys and listening sessions, aimed to improve effective communication between staff and leadership. Tiered safety huddles are daily, brief meetings designed to quickly respond to and escalate issues, fostering staff perceptions of the organization's commitment to safety and open communication.
Our project involved creating multiple tiers, or layers of leadership, each addressing different levels of issues ensuring appropriate escalation and follow up occurs. Measurable outcomes include increased staff engagement, quicker resolution of safety issues, and enhanced organizational communication. The huddles provided a platform for frontline staff to voice concerns and suggestions, leading to a sense of ownership and involvement in safety processes. The structured approach allowed for consistent follow-up on action items.
Tiered huddles have quickly expanded awareness of issues beyond the unit-level and improved problem-solving efficiency. At the top tier, hospital-level huddle, 50 people join via video for a 15-minute huddle. The bi-directional channel contributed toward perceived reductions in emails, newsletters, phone calls and other alternative means of delivering information from the front line and staff to leaders and from leaders to front line staff. During the first month of implementation a pulse survey revealed 48% of respondents observed changes made based on culture of safety results and themes identified related to patient safety, staff safety, and other topics from the prior year. Overall, the tiered safety huddles positively impacted the organization's safety culture, increased staff satisfaction, and operational efficiency.
Notes
Reference list included in attached slide deck.
Sigma Membership
Mu Omega
Type
Presentation
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
Other
Research Approach
Other
Keywords:
Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary, Leadership, Leadership Initiatives, Safety Huddles
Recommended Citation
Moody, Rachel Ann; Omdahl, Tami; and Byom, Pauline, "From Communication to Action: The Impact of Tiered Safety Huddles" (2025). Biennial Convention (CONV). 211.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/convention/2025/presentations_2025/211
Conference Name
48th Biennial Convention
Conference Host
Sigma Theta Tau International
Conference Location
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Conference Year
2025
Rights Holder
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record. All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository. All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.
Review Type
Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host
Acquisition
Proxy-submission
Date of Issue
2025-12-08
From Communication to Action: The Impact of Tiered Safety Huddles
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
The purpose of this presentation is to share our journey of tiered safety huddles in a large academic medical center. This structure enhances staff perception of commitment to safety, promotes open communication, facilitates learning from errors and reinforces leadership support of a safety-focused environment. The nursing implications include improved teamwork, transparency, bidirectional communication, and supporting a culture of safety that engages our frontline staff and leadership.
This initiative, informed by feedback staff surveys and listening sessions, aimed to improve effective communication between staff and leadership. Tiered safety huddles are daily, brief meetings designed to quickly respond to and escalate issues, fostering staff perceptions of the organization's commitment to safety and open communication.
Our project involved creating multiple tiers, or layers of leadership, each addressing different levels of issues ensuring appropriate escalation and follow up occurs. Measurable outcomes include increased staff engagement, quicker resolution of safety issues, and enhanced organizational communication. The huddles provided a platform for frontline staff to voice concerns and suggestions, leading to a sense of ownership and involvement in safety processes. The structured approach allowed for consistent follow-up on action items.
Tiered huddles have quickly expanded awareness of issues beyond the unit-level and improved problem-solving efficiency. At the top tier, hospital-level huddle, 50 people join via video for a 15-minute huddle. The bi-directional channel contributed toward perceived reductions in emails, newsletters, phone calls and other alternative means of delivering information from the front line and staff to leaders and from leaders to front line staff. During the first month of implementation a pulse survey revealed 48% of respondents observed changes made based on culture of safety results and themes identified related to patient safety, staff safety, and other topics from the prior year. Overall, the tiered safety huddles positively impacted the organization's safety culture, increased staff satisfaction, and operational efficiency.
Description
Sharing our journey of implementation of tiered safety huddles in a large academic medical center by providing a structure to improve staff perception of commitment to safety, fostering a culture of open communication, learning from errors and promoting leadership support a strong culture of safety environment. The nursing implications were improved teamwork, transparency, bidirectional communication, and perceived changes to enhance culture of safety that engage frontline staff and leadership.