In recognition of Patient Safety Awareness Week, DCMH offers tips to help patients stay safe and take an active role in their care. Patient Safety Awareness Week, which is observed annually to raise awareness of important patient safety issues, is March 10 – 16.
“Patient safety is at the core of the care we provide and engrained within our hospital culture,” said DCMH President & CEO Rex McKinney, “We welcome this opportunity to celebrate Patient Safety Awareness Week in collaboration with the Indiana Hospital Association with our patients, staff, and community.”
DCMH offers the following tips to help patients stay safe and comfortable during their hospital stay:
• Speak up. You must trust your health care provider, but remember communication is a two-way street. If you have a question or concern about your care, ask your doctor. Ask Me 3® encourages patients and families to ask three specific questions of their providers to better understand their health conditions and what they need to do to stay healthy.
-What is my main problem?
-What do I need to do?
-Why is it important for me to do this?
• Keep your hands clean. Hand hygiene is the most effective way to prevent the spread of infection. Keep your hands clean and ask providers to clean their hands before touching you.
• Educate yourself. Unfortunately, it’s possible to get an infection in the hospital while being treated for something else. Know the signs and symptoms of infection and let your health care provider know if you experience them.
• Participate in treatment decisions. Your health care provider has your best interests in mind, but you must be an active participant in your own care. Discuss all treatment options so you can make an informed decision together.
“Patient safety is everyone’s responsibility, from physicians and nurses to patients and visitors,” McKinney added, “We must all work together to ensure patients receive the best, safest care.”
Jennifer Baltus, MSN RN CPHQ, from Quality and Infection Prevention states, “Patient safety – from hand hygiene to evaluation of fall risk to donning appropriate personal protective equipment to appropriate disinfection to guarding personal health information to scanning medications to knowing where the fire extinguishers are – all of this and more – continue to be a focus for our entire organization at DCMH. Our Patient Safety Council and Life Safety teams are highly engaged in the risk assessment and mitigation of risks that could present themselves at our facilities. This awareness leads to the safest environment for our patients and employees.”
For more information about Patient Safety Awareness Week, go to www.unitedforpatientsafety.org. Decatur County Memorial Hospital. The quality care you want. Close by.