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Our Culture of Safety

Weaving Safety into Our Culture

2012

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Patient Safety

It is an awesome responsibility and a privilege to care for sick patients and their families.

We want patients and families to feel 100% confident in our ability to protect them from

errors that may occur while in our care.

Each one of us is a thread that weaves a culture of safety in our organization.

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Assuring Safety Every Day

Despite the best efforts of health care providers, errors occur while

caring for patients

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Senior leadership continues to promote a culture of safety by walking through departments and talking to staff each month.

Many of you have participated in the Leadership safety rounds in your department.

This is your opportunity to let leadership know of your concerns regarding safety. KCC leadership staff want to know if you get the right amount of communication to do your job safely, are you provided with all the tools that you need to keep your patients safe.

Promoting a Culture

of Safety- What does that mean?

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Culture of Safety

• Another way that senior leadership promotes safety is to ask staff about how our operations can improve.

• Often times it is the ideas of the staff that bring new and improved solutions to everyday issues.

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These activities promote patient safety.

1. Clean your hands - Do it often!

2. Screen and immunize all eligible patients for vaccine preventable illnesses such as Influenza and Pneumococcal pneumonia.

3. All staff will get an annual influenza vaccination.

Patient Safety Activities

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4. Identify your patient before administering medication or starting a procedure. 5. Answer call lights promptly.

6. Provide accurate “hand off” communication which alerts the next care giver of any special patient concerns.

Patient Safety Activitiescontinued

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7. Keep the call light and the telephone close to the patient to prevent overreaching and falls from the bed.

8. When making hourly rounds, just observing your patient is not enough. Did you ask all of the appropriate questions?

9. Reading back verbal orders and documenting critical lab tests confirms that we are consistently putting the patient first..

Patient Safety Activitiescontinued

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Weaving Safety into our Work Environment

1. Notify your manager or supervisor of any unsafe conditions.

2. Encourage your co-workers to do the same.

3. Report errors. We learn from our mistakes.

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Communicate well and do it often!

• Communication breakdowns can lead to delays in treatment.

• Let your manager know when something needs improving.

• You may have an idea that no one else has thought about.

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Partnering with our Patients

How can patients be involved? Encourage patients to take part in

decisions regarding their care. Let patients know it is ok for them to

remind staff to clean their hands. Encourage patients to take notes and

ask questions.

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Partnering with our PatientsThe more we know about our patients the

easier it is to safely care them.Remind your patient to: Bring an updated list of their

medications to their hospital stay or to the clinic

Bring their treatment portfolio to each appointment

Bring their Karmanos identification card

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Sustaining the Safety Culture

• While all of the practices listed here may seem simple, they are not universally practiced.

• Patient satisfaction is improved by staffs consistency with the little things.

• Encourage your team to do the right thing!