Chief Pediatric Resident Receives Patient Safety Award

Contact: Heather Woolwine
843-792-7669
woolwinh@musc.edu

April 11, 2018

CHARLESTON, SC – MUSC Children’s Health is proud to honor Sarah Yale, M.D., pediatric chief resident, for receiving the Lewis Blackman Patient Safety Champion Caregiver Award for her work to improve patient safety and health care quality in South Carolina.

Yale was recognized not only for her individual efforts to champion patient safety, but also for her work to integrate patient safety closer to the core of physician training at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). As a resident she worked on adverse event reporting, and as chief resident she led the charge to select event reporting as a residency-wide improvement project. As a member of the adverse drug events committee, she reviews trends in drug errors and near misses and helps develop potential system-wide fixes for those issues. Yale’s colleagues report that she consistently ensures that all trainees coming through her program recognize the gravity and importance of preventing medical errors.

Each year the Lewis Blackman Patient Safety Champion Awards program celebrates the medical caregivers, leaders, researchers, advocates, and students who are making health care better and safer for South Carolina patients. The awards are named in memory of Lewis Wardlaw Blackman, a bright and gifted 15-year old who died following an elective surgical procedure in 2000 due to a preventable medical error. Lewis’ mother, Helen Haskell, founder and president of Mothers Against Medical Error (MAME) and member of the Institute for Health care Improvement board of directors, continues to provide inspiration for the awards through her exceptional work in patient safety and quality improvement.

The Lewis Blackman Patient Safety Champion Awards were established in 2008 by the founding partners of the South Carolina Transforming Health Symposium, including MAME, Health Sciences South Carolina (HSSC), PHT Services Ltd. (PHTS) and the South Carolina Hospital Association (SCHA) to honor individuals who have made significant contributions to patient safety in our state. Award winners are recognized annually during the South Carolina Transforming Health Symposium celebration luncheon held at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center on April 10, 2018.

About MUSC Children’s Health
At MUSC Children’s Health we are imagining what’s possible for each and every child by providing the pediatric expertise your child deserves and needs. From promoting healthy lifestyles to offering life-saving treatments, we deliver comprehensive and compassionate care to children throughout South Carolina and beyond. Our integrated health care system consists of a 186-bed pediatric hospital providing the most advanced care possible in more than 26 specialty areas. We also provide the same depth and breadth of expertise in multiple neighborhood locations throughout the Lowcountry, offering primary, urgent, and specialty care. As a Level 1 Trauma center, our pediatric emergency department specializes in providing emergency care for any serious injury or illness your child may experience at home, at school, or at play. Working collaboratively with pediatricians throughout the community, MUSC Children’s Health also provides after-hours care to children from birth to seventeen years of age in three different locations on weeknights, weekends, and holidays. In addition to the clinical care MUSC Children’s Health provides, we are a major pediatric clinical research center conducting significant and ongoing research efforts through the Charles P. Darby Research Institute. This involvement allows us to enhance our ability to provide the highest level of care to children by translating laboratory advances to bedside, developing new technologies, and providing clinical trials.