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Building safer care together

Celebrating Canadian Patient Safety Week at Holland Bloorview

Every day at Holland Bloorview, patient safety is shaped through partnership with children, youth and families. During Canadian Patient Safety Week, October 26 to 31, we join organizations across the country in reflecting on this year’s theme: “What shapes safer care?”

Partnering with families

Three adults and a child

One of Holland Bloorview’s newest patient safety initiatives is the launch of the Advocating for Safety: Clients and Families as Partners e-learning curriculum a free online program designed to help caregivers navigate health-care settings, recognize potential risks and participate confidently in their child’s care. Co-designed with families and informed by caregiver experiences, the curriculum provides practical tools and resources that empower families to be active partners in safety.

Listening to families is another important way we improve safety and quality. Through the Client and Family Experience Survey, families can share feedback about their care experiences after discharge. These insights help inform quality improvement initiatives, program planning and decision-making across the organization.

Whether identifying opportunities for improvement or highlighting what is working well, family feedback helps shape safer care for every child and family at Holland Bloorview. We encourage all clients and families who receive a survey invitation to participate.

Commitment to Caring Safely

At Holland Bloorview, safer care is shaped by a shared commitment to Caring Safely, our organization-wide commitment to building a high-reliability culture where everyone has a role to play in identifying risks, speaking up, learning from experience and continuously improving care.

Some of the Caring Safely initiatives include:

  • Daily safety briefs that increase awareness of emerging risks
  • Executive Leadership Safety Roundings that strengthen leadership engagement and operational awareness
  • Safety huddles that support real-time learning and problem-solving
  • Error prevention training that helps teams identify and mitigate risks
  • Safety coaches who support peer-to-peer learning and best practices across the organization

 

Learning together through the SPS Network

A big group of people in an outdoor setting

On October 26, Holland Bloorview hosted the 2026 Solutions for Patient Safety (SPS) Canadian Regional Learning Session, welcoming health-care leaders, clinicians, staff and family partners from across Canada to share knowledge and strengthen patient safety practices.

In his remarks, Bruce Squires, president and CEO, emphasized that safer care is shaped by leadership, learning, strong systems and environments where people feel safe to speak up. “Safer care is shaped through the choices we make every day. It is shaped by our leadership behaviours, our willingness to listen and learn, the design of our systems and processes, and the degree to which people feel psychologically safe to speak up when something doesn't seem right.” 

Sarah Kramer, chair of the Quality Committee of the Board of Directors, noted: “Safety improves when we compare approaches, share evidence and speak honestly about setbacks as well as successes. It also improves when we listen to clients, families, communities and staff – the people who experience our systems every day and often see risks and opportunities that organizations can miss.” 

Highlighting the impact of the SPS Network, Cate Collins, associate clinical director, shared that the collaborative has grown from eight hospitals in 2008 to 157 member hospitals across North America. Together, SPS hospitals have prevented more than 35,000 cases of serious harm and generated over $835 million in health-care savings through shared learning, standardized safety practices and a commitment to continuous improvement.

Join us in celebrating Patient Safety Week

This Canadian Patient Safety Week, we invite staff, clinicians, clients, families, students and volunteers to explore the resources available, share their experiences and continue asking an important question: What shapes safer care?

Resources: 

 

By Terry Mutuku