Rhonda Wyskiel, R.N., B.S.N., is a patient safety innovation coordinator for the Armstrong Institute who has sought to engage all members of the care team — clinicians, staff, patients and family — in creating safer, more patient-centered processes.
Previously a nurse clinician in the Weinberg Surgical Intensive Care Unit at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, she helped to pioneer the Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP), designed to improve local safety culture and empower frontline clinicians to mitigate hazards on their units. Wyskiel later helped to roll out this program to hospitals across the United States via On the CUSP: Stop BSI, a federally funded project that reduced central line-associated bloodstream infections by 40 percent.
Wyskiel has introduced new methods to truly engage patients and family members as necessary participants in the treatment plan. For example, she developed a Family Involvement Menu, which gives patients’ loved ones a list of care activities they can perform in the hospital.
In her current role, Wyskiel engages CUSP teams throughout the health system to incorporate innovation into how they approach everyday care processes. Using Design Thinking methods, she engages teams in finding innovative solutions for complex health care problems.