Hendricks
Regional Health is committed to providing safe care and helping our
patients become and stay healthy. We were the recipient of the HealthGrades 2010 Patient Safety Excellence Award™.
Hendricks Regional Health was one of 238 hospitals throughout the nation who received this award, making up 5 percent of hospitals in the nation. HealthGrades is the nation’s leading independent healthcare ratings company, providing objective clinical quality ratings based on patient outcomes.
Our culture of safety is centered around a strategic roadmap to accomplish ambitious new patient safety initiatives by the end of 2010. Here are some highlights of the plan’s goals, many which have already been achieved. Click on each topic to read more:
Prevent Medication Mistakes
Staff administers an average of 60,000 doses of medication each month. A process of many check points helps to make sure the five “rights” of medication safety are met. That means the right patient gets the right drug in the right dose through the right route at the right time. We also use innovative ways like bedside barcode scanning to help keep our patients safe from medication mistakes. Data shows we are successful in doing just that. In fact, during a recent three-month recording period, no medication events happened in four of the five “rights” categories. Learn more about the steps we take to prevent medication errors at Hendricks Regional Health.
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Prevent Falls
Hospitalized patients often are at increased risk for falling. Health conditions along with unfamiliar surroundings and medical equipment attached to the patient can all increase that risk. Illnesses or medications can also raise a person’s risk of falling as they might be uncomfortable, dizzy or lightheaded, or simply limited in their mobility.
Even though fall rates at Hendricks Regional Health are below the national average, we consider one patient fall to be one too many. That’s why we have improved how we care for patients at risk for falls. Nursing staff evaluates every patient when he or she are admitted for their risk of falling and repeats the assessment throughout the hospital stay. Patients with an increased risk are given a bright yellow wristband, and a yellow flag is placed on the door to their room so all members of the care team from dietary workers delivering trays to physicians at the bedside are aware of the patient’s increased risk. We also are continuously making improvements to our physical environment to prevent accidental falls that could injure a patient.
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Improve Communication
Good communication is the foundation of a successful healthcare team. In fact, many medical errors could by prevented by simply improving communication. From the simple to the high-tech, we continuously find ways to keep physicians, nurses and other care providers on the same page.
A high-tech example is an electronic device called Vocera, which gives hands-free communication to staff any time or place in the hospital. This two-way, wireless tool gives nurses and physicians on the move the ability to respond to pages at any moment.
Using electronic medical records also helps caregivers stay in touch, in and out of the hospital. All of the specialists and primary care doctors in the Hendricks Regional Health Medical Group share a wireless communication network for fast, easy access to a patient’s medical record. This technology also provides faster test results and paperless physician orders.
An example of a simpler communication solution is the recent implementation of white dry-erase boards in every patient room. Nurses use them to help everyone know what’s on the patient’s treatment plan each day. The boards also help patients and family members get to know the members of their healthcare team.
Providing safe, effective care means understanding which processes work and which need improvement. That’s why our Patient Safety Committee began in early 2008 making regular rounds to all clinical areas. Informal discussions with doctors and nurses on the front lines of care lead to real-time feedback for improvement, and that means safer care for patients.
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Work Together for Safer Care
Patient safety at Hendricks Regional Health is rooted in our culture. It is integrated into the way we care for all patients, and that’s why it takes input from everyone to meet our safe care goals. Teamwork and collaboration can be found across the hospital, working to improve care and save lives. For example, FASTeam (Focus Assessment and Support Team) is our rapid response team that stabilizes a patient in a crisis situation. If a patient’s condition is at risk of deteriorating, this team of experienced clinicians is called in early to help. FASTeam has helped decrease emergency resuscitations (“Code Blues”) and the number of patients transferred to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
Other teams were established to help prevent infection, improve stroke care, reduce the “door to EKG” time of heart patients in the emergency department and more.
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Prevent Infection – In and Out of the Hospital
Hand hygiene is one of the most important ways to prevent the spread of infection to patients. We keep patients healthier by providing staff and visitors with easy access to soap and water or alcohol-based hand cleaners throughout the hospital, along with colorful signs reminding everyone to get “all hands to the pump.”
Drug-resistant “superbugs” like Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) often make national news headlines. However, MRSA and other hospital-acquired infection rates at Hendricks Regional Health are extremely low compared to national averages.
We also work hard to reduce our patients’ risk of other infections such as pneumococcal pneumonia and influenza, which can cause serious complications. Studies have shown that many older Americans are not up to date on these important preventive measures. That’s why we screen every non-surgical patient and provide the vaccines to those who can benefit from them.
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Standardize Colors for Patient Wristbands
Hospitals have long used color-coded wristbands to alert caregivers to certain patient risks. Patient safety organizations including the American Hospital Association (AHA) are asking hospitals nationwide to standardizing the colors of the wristbands. The AHA is asking all hospitals to use three standardized colors for alert wristbands – red for patient allergies; yellow for a fall risk; and purple for do-not-resuscitate patient preferences. Hendricks Regional Health is already using red and yellow with plans to implement purple.
Streamlining the colors of wristbands across hospitals nationwide helps reduce the chance for errors for every patient, not just those at Hendricks Regional Health. Doctors, nurses and members of the healthcare team know what the colors mean no matter where they are providing care.
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Forge to the Forefront
Example: Leading in Standardization of High-Alert IV Medications
In the fall of 2008, Hendricks Regional Health led an effort by the Indianapolis Patient Safety Coalition to standardize the concentrations of many high-alert IV medications.
High-alert medicines, many which are given through an IV, have a greater risk of causing severe harm to a patient if administered incorrectly. Across the nation, lack of standardization has been at least a partial cause of many individual cases of overly high doses, including a number of fatal overdoses.
Many doctors and nurses work in multiple settings, and not having standard concentrations of high-risk IV drugs creates more chances for errors. By standardizing these medicines, we are helping keep patients safer both here and elsewhere.
Example: Surgery Safety Checklist Campaign Initiative
Physicians and staff in the Childbirth Center recently piloted a new Surgical Safety Checklist initiative as part of a campaign by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. The checklist was established to help reduce the chance of medical errors by promoting communication for all members of the surgical team. The checklist, which was featured on a reunion episode of NBC’s ER as part of a national awareness effort, is just one way we keep safe care at the forefront.
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