Reporting, Correcting and Preventing Safety Issues
Disclosure Policy
If something unplanned or unexpected happens during a patient's care, the Lourdes staff will:
If something unplanned or unexpected happens during a patient's care, the Lourdes staff will:
- Alert the patient to the event.
- Explain what took place.
- Determine the cause, to prevent such occurrences in the future.
Lourdes keeps patient safety at the daily forefront. Maintaining a safe environment is an attitude instilled in the Lourdes staff.
Awareness through education, medical rounds and performance review helps to make the difference. It creates a consensus around change when Lourdes needs adjustments in care delivery.
The efforts first require creating a safe environment for staff members—that is, an environment where they feel eager about sharing any issues that impact patient safety. This kind of safety reporting allows Lourdes to take action.
The Surgery Example
Lourdes safety procedures around surgery serve as an example of the checks and controls that the health system uses to prevent error:
- Training. Regular, additional, professional learning and instruction of many kinds helps assure competency among surgical staff.
- Consent. Careful, practiced use of a patient- and family-friendly protocol for providing permission for care, means that patients receive a final review of the planned surgery (including risks and other options). They have time to ask questions and their consent is witnessed.
- Prior to the operation. The staff confirms all facts in the medical record, begins careful surgical record keeping and confers in a final, open-communicaiton opporturnity for the surgical team before beginning the procedure (including confirming patient identity, procedure and site of operation). .
