March 8- Penobscot Valley Hospital, in Lincoln, is celebrating National Patient Safety Awareness Week (March 7-13, 2010). Patient safety is a huge priority for the employees of the hospital in Lincoln, and the facility has a number of active programs to make PVH a safe place for patients and visitors.
On Monday, March 8, 2010, the hospital held an internal Patient Safety Fair for employees, so staff members could educate each other about patient safety initiatives in various departments. Students from the Mattanawcook Academy Community Integration Program, supervised by Mrs. Connie Reed, helped promote the event and made special “thank you” posters for all the departments for their hard work spearheading safety initiatives.
The hospital’s safety programs include:
1) Safety Huddles—PVH’s Inpatient Staff completes safety huddles each shift to promote awareness of individual patient safety needs. Bed-side reporting and hourly rounding are also new initiatives to improve safety. A new call-bell system pages the nurse through a pager for faster notification that a patient needs assistance. Having the individual pagers, as compared to the overhead paging system, also cuts down on the noise levels in the hospital.
2) SBAR Method--The nurses at PVH are utilizing the SBAR system as a method of communication to report vital patient information. SBAR stands for situation, background, assessment and recommendation. This tool has been shown to increase patient safety by as much as 45%. (Sutton S. Haig, KM & J. Whittington from the Journal on Quality and Patient Safety).
3) “Teach Backs”—Caregivers are asking patients to read or explain their important instructions back to someone such as a nurse of doctor to make sure the patient completely understands the directions or education. These methods are endorsed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
4) Medication Technology—PVH has implemented state-of-the-art technology to reduce medication errors. The system uses computers to dispense the correct medication and dosage for each patient. Bar code scanning is used to ensure each patient receives the correct medications.
5) SMART Pumps—PVH is using SMART Pump software to ensure that IV medications are administered at a safe rate and concentration.
6) Green Folders—The hospital is giving each person a green folder when they are discharged so that the patient can keep accurate medication lists. Each patient is encouraged to take that folder to each medical appointment or visit to the hospital to make sure all of the person’s caregivers have the most updated medication lists and other medical information.
7) Bed-side Education—The PVH Pharmacy is now offering bed-side education on medications.
8) Collaborative Standards--PVH is part of the Critical Access Hospital Collaborative with 13 other facilities around the state. These hospitals are working to enhance patient safety by sharing ideas and best practices across the state.
9) Preventing Falls--Falls are a special concern at PVH. The Red Slipper Program creates awareness of patients at risk for falls. Falls can result in serious injury and should not be taken lightly. There are many interventions that a person can do to prevent falls at home. Keep your walk areas free of clutter and trip hazards. Provide adequate lighting, and ask for help when trying to access items that are out of reach.
10) Hand Hygiene—PVH has been campaigning for better hand hygiene for a couple of years—both in the hospital and in the community. The hospital has made hand sanitizer, gloves, and masks available at multiple locations around the building, and PVH’s Infection Control Officer, Sherry McCafferty, is tracking proper hand hygiene within the hospital to make sure staff are maintaining the highest standards. Hand Hygiene is the best defense against infections including MRSA (Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus). It is different from other germs because there are only a few medicines that treat it.
11) Experts Get Together--PVH staff holds regular Multidisciplinary Team Meetings (MDT). MDT Meetings give nurses, therapists, doctors, case mangers, pharmacists, and dietitians an opportunity to discuss care and use each other as resources. The groups use this time to talk about individualized care and ways to improve safety.
12) Safe Patient Handling--PVH has purchased several pieces of equipment for enhanced safety. A hover mat was purchased to transfer people from bed to bed without having to pull on the patient. The hospital also has a “sit-to-stand”, a piece of equipment which makes it possible for patients who are too weak to stand on their own to stand with the assistance of a mechanical lift.
13) Cardiac Monitors—PVH has purchased hospital-wide cardiac monitors which will allow physicians to review a patient’s heart rhythms even from off site. In the near future, PVH will also have Tele-trauma and Tele-medicine capabilities through a partnership with Eastern Maine Medical Center. This will allow specialists to do real-time consultations.
14) Helipad—The hospital’s new helipad, built with the assistance of LifeFlight of Maine, cuts travel time to advanced, life-saving care down by an average of 28 minutes.
PVH will be offering hospital tours to the community as part of Patient Safety Week. Visit the hospital on Saturday, March 13 from 10 a.m. to 12 noon to see a number of patient safety-driven improvements. The hospital would like to thank the MA Community Integration Program students for providing centerpieces for the hospital’s cafeteria during the Patient Safety Awareness Week tours on March 13. |
