Health Signs - Summer 2011 - (Page 8)

CEO Letter Making the (Health) Grades Washington Hospital earns top national honors for excellence in patient safety—and keeps working to improve even more Providing the best care for our patients is the overriding responsibility of Washington Hospital. Other responsibilities—such as prudent fiscal management, employee oversight, physician relations, public health initiatives and property maintenance—also are important, but none matches our primary responsibility for the safety and well-being Nancy Farber of our patients. Chief Executive Officer To meet this ongoing challenge, hospital staff, physicians and management establish systems and procedures to ensure patient safety, then continually reexamine them to see how they could be improved—how we could reduce in-hospital infections, for example. We bring in experts to advise us on better ways to handle medications. Patient safety is a job that never ends. We work on it 24 hours a day, each day of the year. I’m pleased to note that our hard work has been recognized by HealthGrades, the leading national health care ratings, information and advisory services organization. Washington Hospital is the recipient of the 2011 HealthGrades Award for Patient Safety Excellence—the only hospital in the East Bay to receive this honor, and one of only 268 hospitals nationally. The HealthGrades award belongs to everyone in our organization—the doctors, employees, volunteers—and it is a tremendous reflection of everyone’s commitment to the Patient First Ethic at Washington Hospital. The work we are doing in the area of medications is an example of our safety commitment. Medications are among the most powerful and complex treatments in patient care, and we have made their safety a hospital-wide priority. Because of the complexity of the medication management process, Washington Hospital engaged the assistance of the Institute of Safe Medication Practices (ISMP), the nation’s only nonprofit organization devoted to medication error prevention and safe medication use. Washington Hospital takes extensive measures to ensure patient safety. One example of our safety commitment is instituting an electronic system that ensures that medication information is current and accurate. Following ISMP’s recommendation, we have instituted an electronic system that ensures medication information is current and accurate, gives physicians the information they need to make treatment decisions and provides patients with a medication list that they can share with health care providers after they’ve been discharged from the hospital. We also recently installed the MedCarousel®, a state-of-theart technology that increases the accuracy and efficiency of medication dispensing through the use of bar-code technology. This technology will serve as the foundation for our hospital-wide initiative to implement bar-coding solutions wherever possible. Another example of using technology to improve safety is “Smart Infusion Pumps,” a new generation of computerized infusion devices designed to improve the accuracy of administering medications. These devices incorporate safety software that guides the administration of IV medications within safe limits identified by the hospital. We also have customized these devices to be used to administer pain medications as well as IV medications for our young pediatric patients. Medication management is intrinsically complicated and a moving target. Today, we use drugs and technology that didn’t exist 10 years ago; tomorrow, there will be different drugs and different technologies. Our staff is conscientious and hardworking, and we are an excellent, high-quality organization. But health care at its essence is a service provided by human beings who are not perfect; safety is a continuous journey. That is why we are committed to implementing systems and processes that will close that gap in our relentless pursuit of patient safety. Putting our patients first always will be the driving force behind Washington Hospital. • We Want to Hear from You If you have questions about the topic of this column or about other WHHS services, please contact Community Relations at 510-791-3417. Additional information about the hospital and our services also is available on our website, whhs.com. Investing in the health of the community. Health Signs is published quarterly as a service to our friends and neighbors by McMurry for Washington Township Health Care District. Material in Health Signs is obtained from a wide range of medical scientists and health care authorities. If you have any concerns about specific items that appear in Health Signs, please consult your personal physician regarding their effects on your individual health. © McMurry 2011. If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please write to: Health Signs Editor, Washington Hospital Healthcare System, Community Relations Department, 2000 Mowry Ave., Fremont, CA 94538-1716. If you wish to have your name removed from our mailing list and other consumer lists like it, write to the Mail Preference Service, Direct Marketing Association, P.O. Box 9008, Farmingdale, NY 11735-9008. Nancy Farber, Chief Executive Officer; Christopher D. Brown, Executive Editor; Clayton Warren, Managing Editor. Volume 23, Number 3. 39 8 SUMMER 2011 http://www.whhs.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Health Signs - Summer 2011

Health Signs - Summer 2011
WHHS Earns Patient Safety Excellence Award, and the Center for Joint Replacement ranks No. 1 in California
The next evolution of breast cancer surgery
Why kids and adults should get immunized against whooping cough
Bringing comfort and care to patients receiving chemo treatments

Health Signs - Summer 2011