Riverwood Healthcare Center is proud to announce that it is the recipient of a SAFE SITE award from the Minnesota Hospital Association (MHA).
The SAFE SITE campaign has 120 participating hospitals and surgical centers. Launched in December 2007, the campaign aims to prevent wrong-site and wrong-patient procedures.
This campaign is an effort to reduce the number of adverse surgical events, such as the wrong procedure being performed, or a procedure being performed on the wrong body part or patient. The Safe Site Roadmap to a Comprehensive Safe Site Procedure Program provides a detailed list of recommended actions, such as creating checklists and audits that provide safeguards in the process as well as staff training and patient education on the topic.
“Patient safety is a top priority at Riverwood,” says Riverwood CEO Michael Hagen. “Our surgeons and surgical services staff are dedicated to providing the highest level of quality and safety for patients during all procedures at our facility. We’re happy to see their work on the Safe Site campaign recognized with a statewide award.”
The MHA awards in five categories—Safe Skin, Safe from Falls, Safe Site, Safe Count and Safe Account—are all based on national and state best practices and on participating hospitals’ sharing of information about adverse health events that occurred at their facilities. To qualify for a patient safety award, hospitals must implement at least 90 percent of each campaign’s required measures.
“Hospitals that receive these awards are to be commended — the bar is set very high,” says MHA Patient Safety Vice President Tania Daniels. “Hospitals that qualify have achieved measurable and meaningful progress toward implementing best practices to drive down adverse health events.”
The Minnesota Hospital Association is a trade group representing Minnesota hospitals and health systems. For more information, go to www.mnhospitals.org
Media contact: Arlene Wheaton, Riverwood Healthcare, (218) 927-5589