Children's Minnesota employees honored for leadership in patient safety

MINNEAPOLIS, March 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Two Children's Minnesota employees were honored in Becker's Hospital Review 2020 list of '50 patient safety experts to know.' Bobbie Carroll, vice president of quality, and Wendy Berg, BSN, RN, infection preventionist, were among those considered to be strong and prominent advocates for patient safety.

Learn more about Children's Minnesota Quality of Care

Bobbie Carroll has led the quality program at Children's Minnesota, addressing improvements in all domains of quality. She has focused the majority of her career around preventing patient harm through system level investigation and improvement. Under her leadership, Children's Minnesota created respect and dignity safety learning reports to help the quality team better understand threats to a culture of safety and equity. In 2019, the system received more than 300 reports, the majority of which were from patients and families. The reports have pointed out areas for improvement, including consistent use of interpreters, ensuring complete discharge readiness and at home instructions.

Wendy Berg has collaborated with care teams to prevent infections in Children's Minnesota's neonatal, hematology-oncology and home care populations. Under her leadership, Children's Minnesota's Minneapolis Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) went more than 410 days without a central line-associated blood stream infection (CLABSI). Key strategies that have allowed the unit to be CLABSI-free for more than a year included hand hygiene, and standardized procedures for entering and manipulating central lines.

Becker's Hospital Review selected patient safety leaders based on nominations; current leadership positions; and an examination of patient awards, publications and achievements in the field of patient safety.

About Children's Minnesota

Children's Minnesota is the seventh largest pediatric health system in the United States and the only health system in Minnesota to provide care exclusively to children, from before birth through young adulthood. An independent and not-for-profit system since 1924, Children's Minnesota serves kids throughout the Upper Midwest at two free-standing hospitals, 12 primary and specialty care clinics and six rehabilitation sites. Children's Minnesota is regularly ranked by U.S. News & World Report as a top children's hospital.

Find us on Facebook @childrensminnesota or on Twitter and Instagram @childrensmn. Please visit childrensMN.org.

SOURCE Children's Minnesota