Dr. Lydia Love, a clinical associate professor of anesthesiology at the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine, has been appointed to the new position of director of patient safety at the NC State Veterinary Hospital after recently becoming the first veterinarian in the country to become a Certified Professional in Patient Safety. 

The CPPS credential is awarded through the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and requires passing a rigorous exam in Culture​; Systems Thinking, Human Factors Engineering and Design; Safety Risks and Responses; and Performance Measurement, Analysis and Improvement and Monitoring.

“That Dr. Love is the first veterinarian ever to receive this particular certification is a reflection of her dedication and highlights the fact that NC State is at the forefront of the patient-safety field in veterinary medicine,” says Dr. Anthony Blikslager, associate dean and director of Veterinary Medical Services at NC State. “Most vet schools are moving toward more patient safety efforts, but we’ve had an ad hoc committee for years.”

Dr. Love is a leader among that group of volunteers, who meet about every two weeks to review patient safety notifications voluntarily reported through a system the college implemented several years ago. 

“We use a Just Culture approach in which, when honest mistakes happen, people are supported, and instead of shame and blame, we look at the systems around them, the environment they’re working in, the tools they have, the communication that was possible in that moment and try to fix those systems or change them,” Love says. “When predictable human error occurs, because we’re all human, then we can trap it.” 

Veterinary medicine is just starting to embrace the patient safety movement, Love says. To be accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, human hospitals have to follow reporting guidelines for patient-safety incidents, but veterinary hospitals have no reporting requirements, even for hospital-acquired infections, Love says.  

“This proactive commitment to safety is helpful to our patients, but also to the providers, our teams, our people,” Love says. “What we do is risky. The drugs we use are risky, and the procedures we do inherently carry risk, and sometimes things go wrong, even when we are very conscientious, highly trained and highly supported.” 

Love obtained the CPPS certification simply because she wanted to learn more about the patient-safety principles that are second nature at human hospitals, a commitment that college leadership including Dr. Kate Meurs, the Randall B. Terry Jr. Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine, fully supported, she says.

The NC State Veterinary Hospital sees more than 30,000 patients each year.

First priorities for Love are training faculty, staff and students in a common safety-first language and developing a rapid response support group to provide workers with resources and a listening ear after a crisis.

“We want people to use critical language to alert others to the situation, and the words are, ‘I need clarity,’” she says. “The common words are supposed to signal to everyone that, ‘Hey, we need to stop and make sure we’re all on the same page here,’ no matter where you are in the hierarchy. We’re all here because we care.”

Dr. Love, who earned her DVM at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, joined the clinical faculty at NC State in 2019. She completed a small animal rotating internship at the Veterinary Specialty Hospital of San Diego and a residency at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine. She also is a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Anesthesia and Analgesia.

She will continue in her role as a clinical anesthesiologist at the NC State Veterinary Hospital.

“I’m very excited about the opportunity to have time to focus on patient safety because I think it is helpful not only to our patients, but also to our people,” she says. “I also really enjoy working in the clinic with patients and students and house officers. I learn so much there every day that I think informs the way we can apply the tenets of patient safety culture to our day to day work lives.”