While patient safety has always
been important, the issue took
on even more significance in the health care field in the late 1990s when
the Institute of Medicine issued an
alarming report regarding medical
errors that lead to thousands of unnecessary patient injuries and deaths each
year. That report led to the creation of
new patient safety standards as well as
specific action plans for health care
organizations to follow in order to
achieve those standards.
Patient safety has come a long way in
the last decade or so; not only to the benefit of patients, but also to the benefit of
helping to maintain health care costs,
according to Cathy M. Ceccio, executive
vice president and COO at Akron
General Medical Center.
“Many health care organizations have
really gone the extra mile to take practical, measurable steps to hardwire
patient safety practices into their culture,” she says. “The result has been
more emphasis on patient safety and
outcomes than ever before.”
Smart Business spoke with Ceccio
about the changes in patient safety standards and how patients benefit from
those changes.
How do health care organizations monitor
their patient safety measures?
A number of third-party organizations
can help health care providers assess
and improve their patient safety standards, including an organization called
the Leapfrog Group. Leapfrog — a collaboration of large employers and
health care purchasing consortiums
that have an interest in patient safety —
was initially created to address concerns about the cost of care. It found
that the lack of good patient safety
measures and systems were key factors
in escalating costs. Through initial
research, it identified three key patient
safety initiatives: utilizing a computerized physician order entry system, evidenced-based hospital referrals, and
24/7 staffing by critical-care-trained physicians in intensive care units.
In addition, Leapfrog embraced 27
other safe practices identified by the
National Quality Forum, including very
practical measures such as having nurses read back verbal orders and ensuring
that all medical personnel use standard
abbreviations.
How have patient safety standards changed
over the years?
Leapfrog and other patient safety
organizations were influenced by the
1999 Institute of Medicine report called
‘To Err is Human.’ The report concluded
that if we just implemented some basic
changes in patient care, tens of thousands of lives — if not more — could be
saved.
Patient safety has really moved from a
global awareness issue to a very practical issue. The standards have more teeth
to them now because tactics and an
action plan were identified for each of
the standards. It’s one thing to have
awareness, but awareness is not the
answer. You must have an action-oriented approach. As a result, patient safety
today is more practical, more measurable and very data driven.
How can employers be sure that the hospitals included in their medical plans meet or
exceed patient safety standards?
Many hospitals will put quality and
patient safety information directly on their
Web site, including Leapfrog and other
quality indicators. It’s also very common
for hospitals to include important patient
safety information in their brochures or
information about various procedures that
are provided to patients. It’s a good indicator when a hospital makes an effort to educate its patients not only on what they
need to know, but why such things are
important and the reasons that safety precautions are in place.
Employers should look for designations
from organizations that focus on patient
safety like Leapfrog and the Joint
Commission on Accredited Healthcare
Organizations. This information should be
visible on hospital and health care organizations’ Web sites, promotional materials
and patient information materials.
How do patients benefit from patient safety
standards?
A lot of very pragmatic and practical
steps happen when an organization really embraces patient safety. One of the
actions we take involves ‘red rules,’
which are rules that you adhere to, no
matter what. For example, you never do
anything with, to, or for a patient without having two ways to properly identify
that patient. Other very practical patient
safety tactics include creating and utilizing a structured way for any clinician to
update a physician on a patient’s status
and standardizing the use of abbreviations to reduce confusion in interpreting
physicians’ orders. They may sound simple, but these types of actions help an
organization to really hardwire safety
practices into their culture.
CATHY M. CECCIO is executive vice president and COO at
Akron General Medical Center, which recently was named as one
of the top 50 acute-care hospitals in the country for meeting
patient safety and quality standards. Reach her at (330) 344-1019
or [email protected].
