Press Release

I-70 Medical Center Joins Statewide Just Culture Collaborative

67 organizations work together to improve patient safety

Sweet Springs, Mo.– I-70 Medical Center has joined the Just Culture Collaborative, an effort led by Missouri Center for Patient Safety (MOCPS) to understand why medical errors happen and how to prevent them.

“I-70 Medical Center takes the prevention of medical errors extremely seriously.  Participating in this project gives us an opportunity to actively shape how errors are addressed across the entire state, learn from our peers’ experiences and work toward better healthcare for all Missourians, not just those in Sweet Springs,” said Julie Davenport.

Hospitals, nursing homes, home care agencies, regulatory agencies and a professional school will work together to learn how to implement a Just Culture for patient safety.  A list of collaborating organizations and an overview of the Missouri Just Culture Collaborative are available on the center’s Web site, www.mocps.org.

The Just Culture model aims to reach middle ground between overly punitive methods for dealing with medical errors where people are punished for honest mistakes and a blame-free culture where truly reckless behavior is not held accountable.

“We need to strike a balance between punitive and blame-free in order to encourage an open learning environment where medical errors are reported and, as a result, actions are taken to prevent the same mistakes from happening again,” said Becky Miller, executive director of MOCPS.

While several health systems and hospitals have incorporated just culture practices into their work, Missouri is one of the first states to use a statewide approach.

A grant from the National Council of State Nursing Boards funds the Just Culture Collaborative.  The funding is being used to assess current use of Just Culture concepts, provide training and to put them into use in order to improve safety.

The Just Culture Collaborative is widely supported statewide, with backing from the Missouri State Medical Association, the Missouri Hospital Association, the board of healing arts and several major health systems.

About I-70 Medical Center

I-70 Medical Center proudly serves as an independent, non-profit medical center with an exceptional family of employees, volunteers and physicians collaborating on evidence-based quality care. Offering quality healthcare services to the residents of Sweet Springs, Emma, Houstonia, Concordia, Alma, Blackburn, and the surrounding Mid-Missouri area.

As a full-service 15-bed hospital, I-70 Medical Center provides care in its Emergency Care Center, Endoscopy and Surgery Clinic, Orthopedic Clinic, Rehabilitation Services, In- and Outpatient Services as well as cutting-edge Laboratory and all digital Radiology services.

The Family Clinic serves patients from birth through their senior years. And the Doctor who takes care of your changing healthcare needs in the clinic will be the same doctor that will care for you should ever need the services of our Medical Center.

I-70 Medical Center is online at www.i70medcenter.com.

About MOCPS

MOCPS is a private, not-for-profit corporation dedicated to fostering change throughout Missouri’s health care delivery systems and across the continuum of care.  Its mission is to improve health care quality and patient safety in collaboration with health care providers, physicians, purchasers, consumers and government.