Pictured with the winning poster (from left) are Kim Waffensmith, Sarah Pederson, Chris Goodmanson and Lauryn Ridge.
This year, Riverwood Healthcare Center invited its staff to participate in a poster contest to promote Patient Safety Awareness Week, March 8-14, an annual education and awareness campaign for health care safety, led by the National Patient Safety Foundation and supported by The Joint Commission and the Minnesota Hospital Association Alliance for Patient Safety.
From eight poster entries, a team of six judges from the Riverwood staff selected the lab staff’s poster featuring a Dr. Seuss theme” Safe Care Here, There & Everywhere,” for a grand prize catered lunch.
The Minnesota Alliance for Patient Safety tagline–“Safe Care Everywhere”–reflects the team effort to keep patients and those who care for them free from harm throughout the hospital and clinics. Safety practices at Riverwood cover many different areas, including infection prevention, medication safety, x-ray and other imaging tests, surgical procedures, environmental services, and much more.
Visitors also play an important role in our safety program. “Clean Hands” posters on Riverwood hospital patient room doors remind patients, visitors and health care professionals to follow hand hygiene procedures to prevent the spread of germs.
Other prevention measures visitors are asked to follow include covering their coughs, not visiting when exposed to infectious diseases, and following special precautions posted on the patient room doors to protect those with severely weakened immune systems.
Riverwood employs a full-time safety coordinator, Rhonda Vedder, to ensure that resources are directed at both patient and employee safety. In this role, she oversees compliance with Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and Minnesota Department of Health regulations as well as Joint Commission standards.
Riverwood CEO Chad Cooper adds: “Every day our health care professionals at Riverwood work diligently to ensure the safety of patients across our clinics and in the hospital. Patient Safety Awareness Week is a perfect opportunity to highlight the outstanding efforts that staff members make all year long to protect the safety of our patients.”
Riverwood is accredited by The Joint Commission, which is recognized nationwide as a symbol of quality that reflects an organization’s commitment to meeting rigorous quality and patient safety standards.
The Joint Commission adopted a formal Sentinel Event policy in 1996 to help hospitals that experience serious adverse events improve safety and learn from these events. A sentinel event or adverse health event results in either permanent harm, severe temporary harm and intervention required to sustain life, or death. Examples of events include patient falls, wrong-site surgery, or administration of the wrong medication or dose.
Asking for two patient identifiers–a patient’s name and birthdate–at every point of contact within the hospital and clinic is one protocol in place at Riverwood, and other health systems, that helps prevent adverse health events.
According to the Minnesota Hospital Association, 90 percent of health care facilities in the state self-report safety event and medical error information in order to share existing safeguards, identify common safety issues and facilitate new collaborative solutions among hospitals. The reporting helps hospitals to become more aware of medical errors, catch those errors, and encourage staff members at medical facilities to report these events without fear of reprisal.
