Patient Safety a top priority at St. John's

St. John's Health System continues to embrace a leadership role in promoting medication safety. St. Johns’ ongoing efforts to ensure medication safety are evident throughout the integrated health system.

St. John’s adheres to the National Patient Safety Goals updated annually by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). Ensuring the health and safety of patients is St. Johns’ top priority. The health system’s goal is to reduce preventable medical mistakes and improve the quality of care patients receive.

St. John’s has launched several initiatives to promote patient safety, including the “Know Your Meds” page included with this issue. Readers are encouraged to bring all of their medications to their physician and/or pharmacist to be checked for interactions and proper dosage.

The following are other ways St. John’s is working to ensure the health and safety of patients and staff.

100,000 Lives Campaign

The “100,000 Lives Campaign” is a voluntary, nation-wide initiative of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), launched in December 2004 by Dr. Donald Berwick. The campaign objective is to enlist and encourage thousands of U.S. hospitals to implement changes in care proven to prevent avoidable deaths. There are six evidence-based quality improvement changes at the core of the campaign. To participate, hospitals must commit to working on at least one of the six. St. John’s is currently working on all six change initiatives (see right).

Mercy Meds

St. John’s, through the Sisters of Mercy Health System, has partnered with organizations in the pharmaceutical supply chain to implement this unique program. Mercy obtains most medications from a single source – AmerisourceBergen, the country’s largest pharmaceutical wholesaler.

Bridge Medical, a subsidiary of AmerisourceBergen, supplies software that allows nurses to access patient information and verify medication using bar-code technology at the patient bedside. Omnicell dispensing cabinets securely store bar-coded medication and allow nurses to obtain medication directly on the nursing unit in a timely manner.

Mercy’s Consolidated Services Center (CSC), a centralized distribution facility located in Springfield, manages bar coding and unit-dose packaging of medications and serves as the pharmaceutical distributor for all Mercy hospitals, supporting quality control and bringing increased efficiency and reduced costs to these operations. In addition to preventing medication errors, a primary goal of Mercy Meds is to increase nurses’ time at the patient bedside, improving the hospital experience and supporting an exceptional level of care.

Mercy Meds also is positioning hospital pharmacists as integral members of the patient care team, bringing their professional expertise from the pharmacy to the patient floor.

Patient Transfer Safety Initiative

Heavy lifting, incorrect working positions and stress are often all part of the job in patient care. In many cases, this can lead to work injuries among staff, with high costs for sick leave and rehabilitation.

“Sprains and strains, especially back injuries from lifting and transporting patients, are pretty common among nursing staff,” says Patty Garretson, R.N., nurse coordinator for St. John’s Hospital’s Nursing Administration department. “It’s always been expected that nurses lift and transport patients, but as our nursing population gets older, we’re seeing more and more injuries. We’re trying to institute a cultural change in patient care by educating staff about minimal-lifting protocols and utilizing state-of-the-art patient lifting/transporting devices to use on the nursing floors.”

The equipment, which includes rising and standing aids, powered sling-lifts and sliding sheets, was in 2005 purchased with a $215,000 grant from St. John’s Foundation for Community Health.

“In addition to reducing the number of injuries among patient care staff, this new system maintains the safety and dignity of our patients. All of these devices make the most out of a patient’s existing mobility, so it allows them to do as much for themselves as they can with the help of the equipment,” Garretson says.

Other patient safety initiatives at St. John’s include the use of a robotic drug-dispensing system in the St. John’s Hospital pharmacy to improve accuracy and efficiency and software that allows nursing staff to report patient safety issues online.