Patient Safety

• Patient Safety
• Medication Safety
• Safety Highlights
• Infection Control
• Adverse Event Reporting
• Minnesota Hospital Quality Report
• Minnesota Hospital Price Check

Safety Highlights

HealthEast hospitals participate in statewide safety and quality activities:

• We participate in the Minnesota Hospital Association's Patient Safety Registry. This allows us to share safety resources and knowledge with hospitals across the state.
  
  
• Our hospitals are committed to providing information to our patients and their families. We completed the Leapfrog Group survey at www.leapfroggroup.org.
  
  
• HealthEast hospitals are accredited by the Joint Commission and meet the JCAHO National Patient Safety Goals.
  
  

Patient safety focus areas

Surgical

• Improving communication between the surgeon and the nurse
• Improving communication among the surgical team members
• Allowing adequate time for the surgical count
• Opening supply packages away from the patient
• Working with manufacturers and the FDA to package supplies differently
• Developing new ways to track objects used in surgical procedures
• Purchasing surgical sponges and other materials that are easier to track and count
• Making sure that surgery teams are pausing before surgery to review patient information
• Marking the surgical site prior to surgery
• Increasing the use of x-rays in the operating room to identify the correct surgery site  

Pressure ulcers/bed sores

• Conducting extensive staff training on skin inspection and pressure ulcer prevention
• Completing skin inspection upon admission to identify patients at risk and treat accordingly
• Using Wound Ostomy Continence nurses for consultation
• Using pressure reduction surfaces and other special equipment for patients at risk for pressure ulcers
• Providing tools and methods to routinely assess patients at risk for pressure ulcers
• Establish protocols to make sure patients at risk for pressure ulcers are re-positioned on a regular basis
• Increasing the involvement of all staff in pressure ulcer prevention

Safe site surgery

Policy and procedure ensure that the correct site and procedure is done:

• Patient or family asked to verify
• Consent form states procedure and site
• Site is marked if left or right
• Surgeon confirms procedure and site before patient brought to OR
• In the OR, a "pause for the cause" occurs to confirm patient, procedure and site before beginning surgery

Patient identification

Policy and procedure ensure accurate identification of patients before giving medication, blood products or taking blood samples, or before surgery or other invasive procedure:

• Use at least two unique identifiers to establish a patient's identification
• Verify identification by asking the patient to state their full name and date of birth/staff checks medical record number
• Check the patient's ID band

Medication safety

• We have prohibited certain abbreviations and are discouraging the use of others.
• For verbal orders, to verify the order, policy requires the person receiving the order to first write the order as they hear it, and then "read back" the complete order for verification.

Special projects

• Reducing ventilator-associated pneumonia in ICU patients
• Reducing central venous catheter infections in ICU patients

The Joint Commission's National Patient Safety Goals

The Joint Commission's National Patient Safety Goals focus on problem areas in health care safety and how to solve them.

• View the 2009 goals for hospitals (pdf).
• Learn about The Joint Commission at www.jointcommission.org.