When the chief executive officer of Johns Hopkins Medicine asked a staff member what would make the facility safer for patients, the answer was “mops.”

Asking for staff input — from custodians to doctors — was just one measure adopted to clean up safety issues, said Dr. Edward Miller, CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine, at the third annual Maryland Patient Safety Conference Friday.

Putting more mops on the ground at Hopkins not only made floors cleaner, it helped reduce infection in patients and made custodial staff happier, he said.

Miller spoke on a three-member panel called “Bold Leadership in Patient Safety,” as part of the conference that drew 1,200 health care professionals to the Baltimore Convention Center.

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The panel featured Adventist Health Care CEO William Robertson, Franklin Square Hospital Center CEO Carl Schindelar and Miller in a frank discussion about safety in their hospitals.

Simple things like making sure all staff members wash their hands before meeting patients can reduce infection, but can be hard to implement, Schindelar said.

The initiative to make hospital settings safer for patients has improved the numbers, but all three men said patient satisfaction has not risen quite as quickly.

“People are looking for a hotel experience,” Schindelar said.

Oneway patients get that experience is to speak up, said health care consultant Patrice Spath, who addressed a session at the conference.

dulman@baltimoreexaminer.com