2026-28 Patient Safety Plan
At William Osler Health System (Osler), delivering safe, compassionate and high-quality care is at the centre of everything we do. Inspired by the valued feedback of staff, physicians, volunteers, patients, families and the community, Osler’s continuous quality improvement and patient safety journey represents our unwavering commitment to further improve the quality of care we provide to our patients.
In keeping with our strategic direction of Quality Excellence and building on the successes achieved to date through our previous plan, Osler’s 2026-28 Patient Safety Plan aligns with Accreditation Canada's evidence-based quality and safety standards. The plan aims to improve patient safety and minimize risks throughout the organization. It emphasizes what matters most to patients, families, and Osler team members, ensuring safety remains a core priority across all areas of care.
This plan is supported and informed by Osler’s:
- 2024-29 Strategic Plan
- 2026-27 Quality Improvement Plan
- Patient and Family Advisory Council
- 2025 Health Standards Organization Global Workforce Survey results
- Review of current literature, an environmental scan and extensive stakeholder engagement
Engaging patients, their representatives and families is essential for safe care, which encompasses physical, spiritual, emotional and cultural safety. Partnering with patients and patient representatives is crucial to people-centred care, an Accreditation Canada expectation that supports equity in access, quality of care, responsiveness and participation, efficiency and resilience for patients, families, providers and communities.
Oversight for the development and implementation of the Patient Safety Plan lies with Osler’s executive leadership team and Quality Governance Council. A dashboard of key performance and results is shared quarterly with the Quality Governance Council, the executive leadership team and the Board of Directors.
Steps we are taking to improve patient safety
1. Strengthen staff psychological safety
Creating a culture where Osler team members feel safe to speak up, share concerns, and learn from one another without fear of blame is foundational to advancing patient safety. We are continuing to embed the principles of Just Culture to support team member well-being, strengthen teamwork, and drive safer, more consistent care outcomes.
To achieve this objective we will:
- Provide continued leadership and staff education on Just Culture programs that equip leaders with the skills to model Just Culture behaviours and lead essential safety conversations.
- Enabling a culture of speaking up to advance patient safety through targeted campaigns and practical strategies that empower staff to confidently raise concerns without fear of retaliation.
- Elevate and expand the Peer Support Network across identified programs to provide support for frontline staff involved in incidents and promote psychological safety.
Together, these efforts aim to strengthen psychological safety and foster a culture of continuous learning. They play a crucial role in Osler’s ongoing evolution as a high reliability organization, where the well-being of Osler team members and patient safety are fundamentally linked.
2. Foster staff well-being through meaningful recognition
Recognition is one of the many important ways we acknowledge, appreciate and champion Osler team members who Go Beyond for our people and communities every day, supporting the delivery of compassionate, safe, high-quality people-centred care.
To achieve this objective we will:
- Build and distribute the recognition e-toolkit for leaders to help boost motivation and enhance patient outcomes. This toolkit will include resources like digital/convenient access to a guide that provides examples and ideas for recognition.
- Optimize the iApplause Award, which is a digital tool that enables Osler team members to send a personal celebratory message and recognition certificate to a colleague's Osler email for demonstrating one or more of Osler’s Values.
By focusing on recognition tools and strategies, we enrich our organizational culture, bolster workforce resilience, and foster sustainable, high-quality care.
3. Elevate people-centred care
Effective communication among interprofessional care teams is a critical component of patient safety and high-quality care. When care teams communicate effectively with each other and with patients and families, care becomes more coordinated, transitions are safer, and patients and families gain a better understanding of their care plans, leading to informed decision-making.
To achieve this objective we will:
- Systematically share patient experience data to inform unit-level improvements and reinforce patient voice in care delivery.
- Leverage Epic digital tools to improve access to care information, care team communication and follow-up after transitions.
These initiatives help create a care environment that is more transparent, coordinated and people-centred; one that seeks to improve information flow and respects and responds to patients' and families' voices.
4. Optimize shift change transitions
Transfer of accountability (TOA) is an interactive process in which patient-specific information, care and related responsibilities are transferred from one health care provider to another with patient involvement to promote continuous, high-quality and safe care. To standardize expectations for TOA and shift change transitions, a structured framework will be developed.
To achieve this objective we will:
- Implement a safety checklist to review essential patient safety concerns and reduce errors.
- Facilitate patient and family involvement during shift changes by conducting TOA at the bedside.
- Adopt SBAR (situation, background, assessment, recommendation) resources to support clear, comprehensive information exchange and optimization of electronic health record use.
- Monitor the utilization of protected time for handover during shift changes to ensure adequate time for safe transitions.
This initiative aims to improve patient safety and quality of care during key transition points such as admission, handover, transfer and discharge. It emphasizes standardizing the information exchanged and the communication procedures.
Role of patients, family members and caregivers
As a patient, a family member or a caregiver, you have an important role to play in the implementation of the Patient Safety Plan by:
- Asking questions, staying informed and actively participating in care, treatment and planning.
- Acknowledging the shared partnership and role in safety and sharing expectations and needs.
- Working closely with providers, especially during care transitions.
- Advocating for your own safety or that of your family at the point of care.
- Learning about and utilizing resources to self-manage a safe care experience.
- Reporting patient safety incidents, expecting an apology and support, and offering to co-create system solutions.
- Providing feedback to support organizational learning to make care safer for others.
- Sharing ideas for improving safety and listening to different perspectives.
