CVS reveals ‘major progress’ made in psychological safety campaign

A major veterinary group has shared the results of a campaign to better handle mistakes in practice, which had prompted an almost 200% increase in VetSafe reports.

CVS said the Let’s Learn from Mistakes campaign it launched in 2024, which sought to improve psychological safety and allow colleagues to discuss clinical errors without fear of blame, had made “major progress” in strengthening patient safety culture.

The campaign encourages colleagues to record adverse events on the incident reporting and risk management system VetSafe, complete structured learning reviews and talk openly about unexpected outcomes.

CVS said its VetSafe reports have increased from 761 to 2,275 over the last year while practices have completed “many more” learning reviews.

Clinical confidence

The efforts have prompted updates to surgical safety checklists and improvements to equipment maintenance routines, hospitalisation protocols, dispensing workflows and patient handover procedures.

Practices that engaged more with VetSafe data are said to have reported higher levels of teamwork, clinical confidence and patient safety.

CVS said in its employee net promoter score survey between September 2024 and 2025, it saw improvements in the percentage of colleagues who felt able to speak up about concerns, the percentage who felt mistakes will not be held against them, and the percentage who feel there is a culture of continuous improvement in their team.

‘Building a culture’

Group quality improvement director Angela Rayner said: “For learning purposes, what happened – not who did what – must be the focus.

“Our progress shows what can happen when teams feel safe to speak openly, reflect honestly and use mistakes as an opportunity to grow.

“We are building a culture where people feel supported, not blamed, and where clinical care becomes safer as a result.

“This is a long-term commitment and our goal is for every CVS practice to routinely use VetSafe and learning reviews as part of everyday clinical care.”