SAFE™ Initiative: A Step Closer to Positive Safety Culture and Improved Patient Experience.

Background Positive safety culture is a key characteristic of a high-reliability organization; it is the leading service excellence standard and highest priority of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. However, understanding the importance and impact of safety event reporting was limited at the MD Anderson campus in Sugar Land, Texas. Therefore, we implemented the Secure, Attentive, Focused, Engaged (SAFE™) initiative to create, foster, and continuously improve safety culture throughout the campus, with a secondary goal of impacting patient experience.

Lung Cancer Patient Perceptions of the Value of an Outreach Thoracic Surgical Clinic.

Background: Although specialty outreach clinics have been associated with improved outcomes and access to care, their role for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has not been described. We sought to characterize perceptions of the utility of a specialty outreach clinic among patients with suspected NSCLC.

Methods: Surveys were administered to patients who were suspected to have NSCLC and were seen at an outreach thoracic surgery clinic (2016 to 2017).