Lee Varner, MSEMS, EMT-P, CPPS

Lee Varner is the Patient Safety Director for the Center for Patient Safety.

Lee Varner, MSEMS, EMT-P, CPPS

Lee Varner, MSEMS, EMT-P, CPPS

Lee Varner is the Patient Safety Director for the Center for Patient Safety.

Recent posts by Lee Varner, MSEMS, EMT-P, CPPS

3 min read

An EMS Leader’s Duty for Safe Patient Care: 3 Things You Need to Know

By Lee Varner, MSEMS, EMT-P, CPPS on Sep 13, 2019

EDITOR'S NOTE: Special thanks to our guest blogger, Lee Varner. Lee is the Director of the Center for Patient Safety, and has over 20 years of experience in transformational leadership and patient safety to provide consultation and educational services for improving performance effectiveness, quality initiatives, healthcare best practices, culture training and patient safety strategies. 

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Recently, I was part of a conversation with a group of EMS leaders who were talking about clinical errors. They discussed the different types of clinical errors that they have seen and which ones kept them up at night. A few offered examples where a medication error or airway event harmed patient.   

I was happy to hear that everyone realized that most adverse events were usually part of system failure and not just caused by a reckless EMT or paramedic. Furthermore, everyone agreed that EMS clinicians are competent, compassionate, and dedicated people who don’t show up for duty expecting to harm a patient. But when harm does reach a patient, it affects everyone: the patient, family, the EMT or paramedic, and the entire agency. There was no disagreement that harm from medical errors was affecting everyone involved, but the nagging question was, how to reduce those errors? 

Topics: Patient Safety Quality Change Management
4 min read

It's About Time Your Organization Developed a Plan to Reduce Preventable Patient Harm. Here's How.

By Lee Varner, MSEMS, EMT-P, CPPS on Apr 03, 2019

EDITOR'S NOTE: Special thanks to our guest blogger, Lee Varner. Lee is the Director of the Center for Patient Safety, and has over 20 years of experience in transformational leadership and patient safety to provide consultation and educational services for improving performance effectiveness, quality initiatives, healthcare best practices, just culture training and patient safety strategies. 

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In your organization, are you proactive or reactive about clinical errors?  Isn’t time you develop a plan to reduce preventable patient harm?

It’s been roughly 20 years since the Institute of Medicine published the report “To Err is Human,” which identified that our nation’s healthcare system was harming patients.  It’s also been about 7 years since the release of the National EMS Culture of Safety report which discussed similar concerns with EMS (Emergency Medical Services).  While there are many differences between the 2 reports, and the clinical settings between EMS and hospitals, there are also many commonalities and parallels between both.