Simu-Leader is an online management and leadership simulation program that allows teams of health care professionals to practice their responses to challenges in patient safety and quality improvement.
The program was created to fill a critical learning gap in patient safety training: Health care leaders have few opportunities to build the skills needed to guide their organizations’ efforts effectively to prevent medical errors and complications and improve patient outcomes.
Participants in Simu-Leader work as a team in a fictional hospital that has a failing patient safety record. They go on simulated executive rounds, interview key stakeholders, and review clinical processes and outcome data. Then they work together, in real-time, to discuss their strategies and devise a plan. They address important questions, such as how to engage staff, create sustainable solutions and ensure that employees have the resources and tools to be successful.
Teams are asked to think creatively and test out-of-the-box solutions that they will be able to apply in situations they may face on the job. During the two-hour simulation exercise, teams receive feedback on their plans for change and are given opportunities to hone their strategies.
The simulation was designed for health care executives, midlevel managers engaged in safety and quality improvement work, and department, unit or front-line leaders.
Created by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Medicine Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality and Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory, this innovative program was made possible by a grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
