This week (March 13-19) is Patient Safety Awareness Week.
The National Patient Safety Foundation says the campaign is “designed to spark dialogue and promote action to improve the safety of the health care system for patients and the workforce.”
Join the patient safety campaign and implement these safety recommendations from our expert panels:
- Improve Patient-Controlled Analgesia (PCA) Pump Safety
The Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety, with the advice of a group of nineteen renowned physicians and nurses, released the PCA Safety Checklist to help healthcare professionals reduce the number of adverse events involving PCA pumps. This concise checklist reminds caregivers of the essential steps needed to be taken to initiate PCA with a patient and to continue to assess that patient’s use of PCA.
A copy of the PCA Safety Checklist can be downloaded at https://ppahs.org/pca-safety-checklist-download/
- Improve the Safety of Pregnant Mothers
“The risks of VTE are 4-5 times higher for pregnant women than for non-pregnant women,” says MaryAnne Laffin, NP, CNM, FACNM (Immediate Past President, National Perinatal Association). “Women not only need to know of the added risk of blood clots during pregnancy, but that this risk increases following cesarean birth. Following c-section, the risk of VTE is almost two times higher. For the safety of pregnant women, the National Perinatal Association therefore encourages all hospitals to adopt these VTE safety recommendations.”
The OB VTE Safety Recommendations were developed with the advice and counsel of a panel of experts, which can be downloaded at https://ppahs.org/ob-vte-safety-recommendations-pdf/
- Improve the Safety of Stroke Patients
“Evidence shows that the health of approximately one in three stroke patients will deteriorate within 24 hours after suffering a stroke. This points to a critical need for intensive continuous monitoring of blood pressure, temperature, oxygenation and blood glucose of all stroke patients to rapidly assess and protect their health and safety,” explains Deborah V. Summers (Stroke Program Coordinator, Saint Luke’s Health System’s Marion Bloch Neuroscience Institute). “One of the deteriorating conditions that may develop within 24 hours of a stroke incident and which may be preventable is PE [pulmonary embolism], which may be fatal. If VTE [venous thromboembolism] risk factor and prophylactic measures are instituted early on, fatal PE may be prevented.”
Developed by a panel of healthcare experts, the Stroke VTE Safety Recommendations provide four concise steps helping to prevent the occurrence of VTE in stroke patients. A copy can be downloaded at https://ppahs.org/stroke-vte-safety-recommendations-pdf/