Patient Safety Awareness Week was March 13-19 and at EHS we celebrated with a number of activities aimed at raising awareness of patient safety and the ways staff can improve the safety of our Clinics, Emergency Rooms and Hospitals. Activities were spearheaded by EHS Quality Department.
To kick off the week, the Quality Department rolled out a large pledge banner for staff to sign as a way of acknowledging their commitment to the 7 National Patient Safety Goals for Hospitals which are: “Identifying Patients Correctly “, “Improve Staff Communications”, “Use Medicines Safely”, “Use Alarms Safely”, “Prevent Infections”, “Prevent Mistakes in Surgery” and “Identify Patient Safety Risks”. The staff was also able to write their own patient safety pledge. It was a very exciting moment that will always be remembered. The Pledge Banner was placed in the lobby of each of our facilities and moved from facility to facility, so staff from our various locations could sign it.
During that week, the Quality Department also held the “Patient Safety Champion” contest to recognize the person who could identify all the safety issues that could happen in a hospital room with a patient. For that purpose, a special room in the hospital was set up with events that were “out of compliance” in terms of patient safety. A video of the room was taken and passed on to the staff so that they could send their responses to the Quality Department. All the persons who correctly identified the safety issues were entered into a drawing for a chance to win a $25 gift card.
Additionally, during Patient Safety Week, staff had fun completing a word search on patient safety terms that was distributed by the Quality team. The activities carried out during Patient Safety Week were recorded in a video that you can see here.
According to some studies (1), nearly 400,000 deaths occur in the United States each year as a result of preventable errors or harm that can have a long-term impact on a patient’s physical health, emotional health, financial well-being, or family relationships.
We are proud of our staff for their enthusiasm in participating in these activities and their motivation to learn more about patient safety! Thank you to our Quality Department for their dedication and effort in organizing these activities.
(1) Patient Safety Magazine.
