Hospital celebrates National Patient Safety Awareness Week
Pulaski Memorial Hospital is celebrating National Patient Safety Awareness Week, March 8-14, by spotlighting ongoing efforts that keep patients safe.
Those at Pulaski Memorial Hospital exemplify this year’s theme “United in Safety” as everyone from the hospital board of trustees to the housekeeping staff takes a role in patient care.
Chief nursing executive Linda Webb said the hospital is doing a number of different activities with the staff “to showcase the processes that we have in place to improve patient safety.”
PMH has been recognized at the state and national levels for reducing patient harm and improving quality and safety outcomes for its patients.
“PMH recognizes staff members as patient safety advocates — this showcases how individual dedication to patient safety throughout the organization contributes to overall quality and safety,” Webb said. “All levels of staff are recognized for their efforts from physicians to nurses to housekeepers. Everyone plays an important role in patient safety.”
PMH is part of the American Hospital Association’s Hospital Engagement Network that was created in 2011 with three-year goals of reducing patient harm by 40 percent and readmissions by 20 percent.
With new processes, technology, standardization and continual monitoring, PMH has realized an 84-percent reduction in patient harm since 2011.
“Even though it was a formal program in 2011, these are processes that we have always looked at. Being involved with the Coalition for Care has really given us more opportunity to look at best practices and implement processes,” Webb said.
There are 10 categories of harm reduction: adverse drug events, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, central line-associated blood stream infections, patient falls, obstetrical events including early-elective deliveries, pressure ulcers, preventable readmissions; surgical-site infections, ventilator-associated pneumonia and venous thromboembolism.
The hospital staff reviews how the hospital compares statewide and nationally. PMH has an active performance improvement committee that meets monthly and reports progress and process changes to improve quality and patient safety.
“There are areas that we are well above the state or national initiatives and there are some that, because our volumes are so low, if you have one or two things, we kind of fall out. That is the importance of doing it right the first time,” Webb said. “Looking comparatively we are doing very well and just the different things that we have implemented to help our patients and our staff.”
Along with implementing certain processes the hospital uses technology to safeguard against patient harm. Examples include bedside barcoding of medication, safety alerts built into an electronic medication administration record, computerized physician order entry, IV smart pumps that are programmed with standardized IV medications, medication reconciliation process and automated medication dispensing cabinets.
As hospital staff focus on patient safety, they are implementing bedside shift reporting to keep the patients well informed of their plan of care. The pharmacists also make rounds on patients to provide education on new medication.
“Patient and family engagement in reducing errors is critical,” Webb said. “All patients should speak up if they have a question about a medication or treatment.”
When the hospital staff is discharging patients, they are given all the information they need to take care of themselves. Nurses provide follow-up calls after a patient goes home to clarify any questions about their care or provide any assistance needed.