March 13–19 is Patient Safety Week
This week kicks off patient safety week. This week is dedicated to improving patient safety inside and outside medical establishments. As many of you know, patients come to hospitals to get better, but unfortunately, a significant number of hospital-acquired infections (HAI) are fatal for many patients entering these establishments.
Fortunately, many medical professionals care immensely for the patients under their care and countless professionals have banded together to vow to improve patient safety.
So, how are they improving your safety in order to have you walk out of the hospital, whether you have had serious surgery or just in for some quick bloodwork? Keep on reading and you’ll see why medicine has never been safer for patients.
Washing Hands
One of the simplest methods to decrease hospital-acquired infections is something people of all ages can perform, washing hands. Medical establishments which have implemented strict hand washing protocol saw a decrease in HAI. These procedures are immensely important because bacteria (highly resistant bacteria as well) have been known to spread from one patent to the next with fatal results. Thankfully, this implementation has dramatically impacted the dangerous bacteria which can have fata results for patients.
Checklists
Hand washing is one way implementing protocol can increase patient safety. However, it is not the only factor which decreases it. Creating rules for patient safety to ensure they are protected at all moments improves their well-being and hospital safety percentage. One such protocol that nearly all hospitals have implemented are pre and post operative checklists. These checklists ensure that the doctors have all of the necessary equipment to operate and to safeguard their patients against any tools which may be accidentally left behind and cause a serious infection.
Build a Barrier
It may seem like all roads lead to hands for patient safety but that assumption isn’t necessarily false. Medical professionals can improve patient safety by employing barrier protection. Disposable gowns and gloves are a quick and effective method to reducing the spread of deadly infections bacteria within a hospital or other medical establishment.
Quick. Simple. Effective. This is what hospitals are doing now to protect you and other patients every time you walk through their doors. That’s not all though, there are so many procedures put in place to protect patients that we couldn’t list them all here. Follow the links below to discover the many ways today’s medical establishments are protecting you.
For More Information, read:
American Medical News (http://www.amednews.com/article/20130415/profession/130419969/4/)
United for Patient Safety (http://www.unitedforpatientsafety.org)
National Patient Safety Foundation (http://www.npsf.org)
