RT Book, Section
A1 Wachter, Robert M.
A1 Gupta, Kiran
SR Print(0)
ID 1146176760
T1 Things Patients and Families Can Do, and Questions They Can Ask, To Improve Their Chances Of Remaining Safe In The Hospital
T2 Understanding Patient Safety, 3e
YR 2017
FD 2017
PB McGraw-Hill Education
PP New York, NY
SN 9781259860249
LK accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1146176760
RD 2024/04/16
AB Table  Graphic  Jump  LocationView  Table||Download  (.pdf)What  to  Do  or  CheckDiscussion  or  RecommendationMake  friends  with  your  nurses,  phlebotomists,  and  other  hospital  personnel.  Make  sure  they  address  you  by  name  at  least  once  each  shift.Before  you  are  given  a  medication,  ask  what  it  is  and  what  it's  for.Before  you  are  given  a  medication,  a  transfusion,  an  x-ray,  or  a  procedure,  make  sure  the  nurse  confirms  your  name  by  both  asking  you  and  checking  your  wristband.Some  hospitals  may  supplement  this  through  the  use  of  bar  coding,  for  example,  checking  that  the  bar  code  on  your  wristband  and  the  bar  code  on  a  medication  bottle  match.Before  being  taken  off  the  floor  for  a  procedure,  ask  what  it  is  and  be  sure  you  understand  where  you  are  going  and  why.Be  sure  your  family  members’  contact  information  is  available  to  the  hospital  or  nursing  home  personnel.It  is  not  a  bad  idea  to  place  a  card  with  your  family  members’  contact  information  by  your  bedside  (in  addition  to  being  sure  that  this  information  is  in  the  chart).Before  being  transferred  from  floor  to  floor  in  a  hospital  (such  as  from  the  ICU  to  the  general  medical  or  surgical  floor)  or  from  one  institution  to  another,  check  to  be  sure  all  catheters  and  other  paraphernalia  that  should  be  removed  have  been.Sometimes  (particularly  when  there  are  no  checklists),  caregivers  will  forget  to  remove  an  IV  line  or  urinary  catheter  before  a  transfer,  which  creates  an  unnecessary  risk  of  infections.  Believe  it  or  not,  doctors  (one  out  of  three  in  one  study)  will  often  forget  whether  their  patient  even  has  a  urinary  catheter  in  place.  Don’t  be  reluctant  to  ask  your  doctors  or  nurses  whether  you  still  need  your  catheters  after  the  urgent  need  for  them  has  passed.Ask  your  caregivers  whether  they  have  washed  (or  cleaned)  their  hands.Increasingly,  you  won’t  see  them  wash  their  hands,  because  they  will  be  rubbing  their  hands  with  an  antiseptic  hand  gel  placed  in  a  dispenser  outside  your  room.  We’d  also  want  to  know  the  hospital's  overall  hand  hygiene  rate,  which  should  be  above  80%.What  is  the  hospital's  rate  of  central  line–associated  bloodstream  infections?Most  hospitals  with  strong  safety  and  infection  prevention  programs  have  driven  this  rate  down  to  less  than  1.5  per  1000  catheter-days.  Similar  benchmark  rates  for  adverse  events  such  as  falls  are  likely  to  emerge  in  the  next  few  years.If  you  have  an  advance  directive  (and  you  should),  keep  a  copy  with  you,  make  sure  your  family  has  one,  give  one  to  your  nurse  or  doctor  to  place  on  your  chart,  and  be  certain  it  is  transferred  from  site  to  site  with  you.Does  the  hospital  have  CPOE,  an  electronic  medical  record,  and  bar  coding?  If  not,  when  do  they  plan  to  have  them?It  would  be  great  if  they  had  them  and  they  were  up  and  running.  If  they  have  CPOE,  ask  what  percent  of  physicians’  orders  are  written  on  the  computerized  system  (if  it  is  less  than  half,  then  the  doctors  are  still  kicking  the  tires  and  the  system  is  not  really  implemented).  If  CPOE  is  ...