Klein receives Bezanson Patient Safety Award

The Susan Bezanson Patient Safety Award is presented annually to a Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital employee who demonstrates superior levels of excellence and the same dedication to patient safety and quality assurance that Sue Bezanson exhibited. This year’s recipient, announced during the annual Employee Service Awards, is Radiology Project Coordinator Sabrina Klein.

Bezanson was once described as an unrelenting spirit with a passion for both the great outdoors and her career in transfusion medicine. She was focused on patient safety and quality assurance, spearheading numerous patient safety initiatives at BWFH that helped shed light on the vital role of ancillary services in patient care prior to her death from breast cancer in 2008.

Like Bezanson, Klein is dedicated to patient safety. She was nominated for the award by both Director of Radiology Brian McIntosh, BS, RT(R), CRA, and Lung Cancer Screening Program Director Francine Jacobson, MD, MPH. In their nominations, both highlighted her creative and engaging efforts to improve hand hygiene rates within the department and her dedication to the Lung Cancer Screening Program and its patients, among other accomplishments.

In his nomination, McIntosh wrote, “Most notable in this past year was the way she shepherded the entire department through a widely acclaimed, highly promoted hand hygiene contest. She singlehandedly coordinated over 500 hand hygiene audits over the last five months of 2018 and sent out weekly emails giving educational tips to help inspire front line staff to wash their hands for patient safety. She was a tour-de-force of polite reminders, gentle coaching and sharing of best practices. The result of her work was that the department was able to improve hand hygiene scores from the mid-70 percentiles to maintain a 98 percent hand washing compliance rate over the last five months of 2018, of which the last two months were 100 percent in all areas.”

In her nomination, Dr. Jacobson wrote, “Sabrina frequently guides patients through the Radiology Department in support of best practices and superior patient experience. Her passion in this regard is most evident in her work as a patient navigator in the Brigham Health Lung Cancer Screening Program. She always goes above and beyond for our patients while also using her gifts of foresight to improve our workflow and supporting systems to build patient safety and quality assurance into our routine work. Sabrina elevates and coordinates ancillary services with unmatched passion, improving patient care and patient safety. It is an honor to work with her at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital.”

For Klein, receiving the Susan Bezanson Patient Safety Award is very meaningful. “I am honored to be selected as this year’s recipient of the Susan Bezanson Patient Safety Award,” she says. “Being surrounded by such dedication to excellence, patient safety and patient care at BWFH has been an inspiration to my work and I hope I can inspire others in the same way.”