Guantanamo Bay Team Strengthens Culture of Safety Through Leadership Engagement, Innovation

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba (April 24, 2026) – At U.S. Naval Hospital Guantanamo Bay, patient safety is built into every process, reinforced through leadership engagement, and driven by staff at every level.

During Patient Safety Awareness Week, staff across U.S. Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command, Guantanamo Bay were recognized for advancing a culture of safety aligned with Defense Health Agency priorities and Navy Medicine lines of effort focused on readiness, quality, and high reliability.

“Patient Safety Week is a designated period for focused reflection and education on our foundational commitment to providing the safest, highest quality healthcare,” said Kathleen Kauffman, patient safety manager. “It is a critical component of our high-reliability journey, ensuring we are always evolving and advancing toward our goal of zero preventable harm.”

This year’s recognition included DHA Ready Reliable Care awards highlighting high-reliability principles such as Reluctance to Simplify and Commitment to Resilience, as well as Patient Safety Champion awards presented to individual staff members for their direct contributions to safer care delivery.

At the core of the hospital’s approach is a system designed not just to respond to issues, but to prevent them.

“As the Patient Safety Manager, my primary function is to direct and oversee the organization’s patient safety program through the identification, analysis, and mitigation of risk,” Kauffman said. “A key part of my role is to champion a proactive, non-punitive culture of safety, where all staff members feel empowered to report concerns and contribute to solutions.”

That culture is reinforced weekly through FOCUS rounds, where the command triad, clinical leadership, and patient safety team visit departments across the hospital to engage directly with staff to “Find Opportunities and Change Unsafe Situations.”

According to Cmdr. Maria Nieves, a family physician and chief medical officer, these rounds are essential for building trust, ensuring welfare and maintaining high standards of discipline and performance at every level.

“They are a fundamental structured practice that is crucial for fostering a cohesive, safe, and effective force,” Nieves said. “It is about the people and how leadership can engage in open conversations to assess morale, understand challenges, and show interest in their well-being.”

The weekly engagement provides a platform for open dialogue, where even the most junior service members can raise concerns, identify risks, and propose solutions directly to senior leadership.

“When teams feel comfortable and open to leadership, we learn the underlying issues they have been having, whether it is with equipment, computers, staff, or supplies,” Nieves said. “It also allows staff to present ideas to increase and maintain patient and staff safety, and opportunities for process improvement (PI) projects.”

Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Victoria Teixeira, leading petty officer for the Patient Administrative Department said those opportunities to speak up during FOCUS rounds directly translate into action.

“By speaking up during FOCUS rounds about bottlenecks in our medevac and overseas screening processes, I felt empowered to lead a PI project that replaced outdated workflows with streamlined, intuitive checklists,” Teixeira said. “This initiative reduced administrative errors and directly enhanced patient safety by ensuring critical care transfers happen faster. By providing a step-by-step checklist, even the most junior Corpsman can guide patients through screenings.”

This bottom-up feedback loop reflects the Defense Health Agency’s emphasis on a culture of safety and high reliability, where every team member plays a role in identifying risk and improving outcomes.

“Our work supports clinical teams by ensuring patient safety is a cornerstone of every care decision,” Kauffman said. “By focusing on prevention and continuous improvement, we strengthen trust, reduce adverse events, and uphold the highest standards of care.”

Through collaboration across departments and alignment with enterprise best practices, the hospital continues to advance its safety program while supporting the broader Military Health System mission.