Tays Heart Hospital is a full-service hospital specialising in cardiac treatment. Tays Heart Hospital is owned by the Pirkanmaa Hospital District, the Central Finland Hospital District and the Kanta-Häme Hospital District. Tays Heart Hospital treats both public and private sector patients who require cardiological treatment or cardiothoracic surgery.
The Heart Hospital employs more than 700 professionals specialised in the treatment of cardiac conditions, about 100 of whom are doctors. The multidisciplinary expertise of the Heart Hospital’s personnel ensures a seamless, reliable and safe treatment experience for the patient.
Granite has brought a systematic approach to our risk management.
Timo Porkkala, Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Service Manager, Chief Medical Officer
Risk management is a critical tool in knowledge-based management that enables goals to be put into practice.
At the core of the Heart Hospital’s operations and development is the patient, with a seamless, timely and effective care pathway as the starting point. Identifying and assessing risks is, in principle, an important part of the work carried out at the Heart Hospital, and the safety of both patients and personnel is systematically developed.
The Heart Hospital’s risk management focuses on the processes related to the patient’s care pathway, through which the entire Group’s operations are reviewed. This work is already guided by legislation and regulations, but also by the Group’s own qualitative objectives.
The Heart Hospital used to have Excel as its risk management tool, but it was not sufficient to achieve the goals set for quality and risk management. There was a need for an appropriate alternative to the rigid risk register, which was difficult to use and maintain, and the Heart Hospital chose Granite’s risk management and safety tools for its risk management.
Modern risk management requires appropriate tools.
Anne Iisakka, Head of Safety and Risk Management
The hospital is a traditional operating environment, and the development of risk management requires clarification of whose responsibility risk management is. Hospital work takes place in a demanding work environment, and misjudgements can have critical consequences. Therefore, decisions and choices must be based on knowledge. Systematic risk management methods enable important information to be collected as accurately, consistently and uniformly as possible.
Risk management and safety at the Heart Hospital are thought of as a whole. The core work is carried out by an agile team of specialists, who report on the risk situation of risk management to the management level, but who are also responsible for the practical implementation of risk management.
Granite has brought visibility to the actual status of risks.
Timo Porkkala, Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Service Manager, Chief Medical Officer
The Heart Hospital’s senior management has adopted the principles of risk management, and the development of risk management is regularly reviewed, especially with regard to strategic risks. At the level of the everyday work of the Heart Hospital, which is the closest to patient work, the situation of the hazards and risks of the work is assessed.
In hospital work, risks are always present and everyone has to consider the risks in their work. It is, therefore, important for risk management that the risks identified in practical work are recorded and made visible so that they can be effectively controlled. With Granite’s risk management tools, the Heart Hospital has adopted a more systematic approach to risk management, which enables a more effective response. Information related to risks and risk management is also largely communicated through Granite. This way, it can be monitored.
The development of risk management and safety is not a simple matter that takes place on its own. The attitude, particularly that of management, determines how risk management is implemented in practice. The Heart Hospital is committed to developing its operations and decision-making, and risk management supports this. The ISO 15224 certificate granted to the Heart Hospital also guides the implementation of standardised risk management.
RiskienThe unique needs of risk management require solutions that support them.
Timo Porkkala, Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Service Manager, Chief Medical Officer
No operating environment is static, but change is constant. Risk management will never be fully completed, and the safety situation will evolve over time. Therefore, the development of risk management and safety at the Heart Hospital requires active monitoring and resources for response. Determined work has improved the maturity of risk management at the Heart Hospital, but at the same time it has brought to light new issues that need to be taken into account. When risk management is put into practice and implemented as part of everyday operations, both the provision of information and training play a crucial role. Appropriate risk management tools make risk management transparent and highlight the identified risks, but at the same time the monitoring tools guide the personnel’s risk competence.
As a result of the risk management work carried out, the risk management needs of the Heart Hospital have increased, evolved and changed. Granite’s customised risk management tools have enabled the development and fine-tuning of the risk management framework. It is, therefore, important for evolving risk management that the tools adapt to the needs and goals of users, not the other way around.
Tays Heart Hospital – risk management with Granite
The benefits of risk management in a modern operating environment are indisputable, but the solutions to its challenges may not be as clear-cut. The risk situation cannot be changed overnight. Risk management cannot be developed using traditional Excel methods or Granite’s risk management software if the organisation does not have the right attitude and a goal-oriented approach to risk management.
In the world of health care, organisations are large and operations multidimensional, which is why the risk situation is constantly changing and evolving. Therefore, risk management and the solutions supporting it must be flexible and allow for a response to changes.
Risk management is worth the effort in the hospital world, too. Systematic and consistent risk management results in the creation of a responsive, results-producing organisation that is able to channel the necessary resources to where they are needed.
Granite has provided the Heart Hospital with a risk management software package that has been adapted to support the evolving needs of its operations. When done properly and intentionally, risk management builds maturity, which will carry far into the future in operational activities and enable the realisation of strategic goals.
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