Huddles…coming to your area soon

One of the service excellence standards communication tools being rolled out across the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance is the “huddle”. To be a culture of excellence, huddles, known as a frequent briefings of 8 minutes or less, are encouraged weekly (minimum), involving managers and staff in all hospital departments. Huddles can also be conducted between staff at change of shift, or when anyone identifies a need for a brief communication between members of a team.
These frequent briefings provide a venue that can address the following:

1. Are there any patient/staff safety concerns today?
2. What has been working well on the unit today?
3. Are there any patients with special considerations others should be aware of?
4. Is there any shortage of supplies, or any broken equipment? Do you have the tools and equipment to do your work?
5. Is there any staff requiring extra assistance?
6. Is there any staff that may have extra time to assist others?

Other questions that can be asked include:

1. Are there any individuals (staff, physicians, other) I should be recognizing today?
2. Is there anything we can do better? (Studer, 2003).

Huddles provide an opportunity for managers and staff to develop relationships and a limate of trust. It is a way to foster a culture of safety as well as recognize employees’ needs. Employees want a good relationship with a leader who is approachable, efficient, and willing to work with staff. Huddles create this opportunity and in turn leaders can recognize, and better yet, can act to meet employee and patient needs (Studer, 2003). Focusing on what went well creates a positive approach that supports a culture of excellence. Staff and patient safety can be addressed and acted upon in order to continue to make the departments not only safer for patients, but for staff as well.

This standard has started to be rolled out over the summer. Managers are holding huddles with staff in all departments. If you have not yet participated in a huddle, ask your manager if huddles are…coming to your area soon.