SHELTON, WA – Pamela Schlauderaff, Mason Health Director of Quality, Patient Safety, and Regulatory Compliance, obtained a Professional Certification in Patient Safety (CPPS) from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement as of May 26, 2021.

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement is an international organization that focuses on patient safety and ways to deliver the best and safest care to patients in health care settings.

The Department of Health offered a grant to complete the CPPS certificate, and Pamela decided to take advantage of the opportunity. As the Director of Quality, Safety, and Regulatory Compliance, she admits that this training compliments her work and Mason Health’s mission of United Community, Empowered People, Exceptional Health.

“Quality of care has been my focus since the 1990’s. I am very interested in learning and implementing innovative ideas supporting the District’s vision of providing the best patient-centered care in the Pacific Northwest. It has been a goal and passion of mine to get certified in Patient Safety. Earlier in my career, I also attained the certification in Quality from the National Association of Healthcare Quality. An important part of managing quality is to follow the data and direct the district’s strategic focus according to it. As Director of Safety, my team oversee infection prevention and employee health. During the Covid-19 pandemic, we rapidly established policies, training and deployed personal protective equipment to ensure both patient and staff safety. A focus on patient safety could not have come at a better time.”

Pamela has more than 40 years of experience in the medical field. At the age of 21, she graduated from Seattle University School of Nursing. Interestingly, Pamela is a native 5th generation Sheltonian. She was the manager for 30 years at the Olympic Physicians clinic before it became part of Mason Health in December of 2013; she then continued to serve the patients of our community by supporting the District’s work in the areas of quality, safety and compliance.

The biggest takeaway for Pamela from the CPPS program comes back to the major principle of quality and patient safety.

“At Mason Health, our work related to quality and patient safety is not about a particular person, it’s about building teams and creating the quality processes for them that help us fulfill our mission, vision and values of Service and Relationships. As an organization it is important that we continue to improve and evolve while focusing on the right processes and provide the necessary tools allowing health care professionals to be successful in delivering care through their daily work.”

Upon completion of the certification in May 2021, Pamela began applying the key learnings and process improvement strategies to Mason Health’s Culture of Safety. A Culture of Safety is a learning culture which is based on standardizing work and processes. This reduces the chance for error.

“At Mason, our culture is one where we want health care professionals to report opportunities for improvement in a proactive fashion. We have changed the way we deploy our safety reporting, so that we have gained significant reporting of issues proactively vs. reactively. This means that issues are reported in advance to predict the needs of our patients and close any process or care gaps. This serves as an indicator of whether the staff feel safe to report or not. It is our goal within the District is to make sure Mason Health employees understand the importance of advanced reporting of any concerns they may have so that we can deliver upon our mission and protect the health of our patients.

In the last six months, Pamela gave several presentations to the department leaders on safety reporting in which she included all that she learned from her CPPS training. Additionally, she meets with every new manager during their orientation process to talk about the importance of safety reporting and how it relates to the mission, vision, and values of the organization.

“I know that people can feel disappointed when receiving reports on quality and safety from their staff members. However, we try to help them understand that these opportunities for improvement are helping us to better care for our patients. In fact, teaching that reported events are considered a gift to our management team and are a key component of caring for our patients and keeping our community healthy has encouraged reporting. Essentially, the safety reports mean that the staff care about the quality and safety of work that we are doing at Mason Health and that they care deeply for our patients. This is a good thing and it should not be considered as punitive.”

For now, Pamela’s main goal is to strengthen the comprehensiveness of the approach to Quality and Safety within all clinics and departments within the District.

“Mason Health’s team has already done a great job, and I have observed the results of it for years. People here are truly passionate about their work. They always put patients first. I am grateful and excited to continue improving my contributions to the Culture of Safety of our organization.”

Indeed, Pamela’s CPPS certification aligns with Mason Health’s Mission of United Community, Empowered People, and Exceptional Health. We congratulate Pamela on her achievement, and we celebrate her proactivity towards the District!

Mason Health, Public Hospital District No. 1 of Mason County, is certified by Det Norske Veritas (DNV) and is a licensed and accredited acute care hospital with a level four emergency trauma designation. There are more than 100 physicians on staff in 19 specialties. For more information or to find a health care provider, visit www.MasonGeneral.com.

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