Patient Safety is Everyone’s Responsibility

Penny Parker, RN, BSN
Patient Safety Officer

Who is responsible for patient safety? Everyone! Patient safety is one of the biggest issues in health care today. According to a 2004 Health Grades study, about 1.14 million patient safety incidents occurred among the 37 million hospitalizations in the Medicare population over the years 2000 to 2002. Medical errors are often a result of a series of small failures that alone are not big enough to cause an accident, but combined can result in an error. Marlboro Park is committed to providing high quality, safe patient care. Patients are a key part of patient safety at any health care facility.

What can patients do to improve patient safety?

1. Ask questions if you have doubts or concerns. If you don’t understand the answer, tell the doctor or hospital staff that you don’t understand. Bring a family member or friend with you to help you ask questions and understand the answers.
2. Bring all of your medications with you to every doctor visit and to the emergency room/hospital. Keep a list of your allergies with you at all times. Try to use the same pharmacy for all of your prescriptions. Ask about medication side effects and what to avoid while taking the medicine.
3. Get the results of any test or procedure. Ask when and how you will get the results of tests or procedures.Don’t assume the results are fine if you do not get them when expected. Ask your doctor what the results mean for your care.
4. Wash your hands after toileting, before eating, after coughing or blowing your nose. Remind your doctor, nurse or other hospital staff to wash their hands.Handwashing is the single most effective way to prevent the spread of infections.
5. Ask the staff for assistance. If you need to go to the bathroom, or if you want to get out of bed, ask the staff for help.After falling, many patients tell us “I didn’t want to bother anyone”, so they did not ask for help. It is less “bother” for us to help a patient to the bathroom or into the chair, than for a patient to fall.
6. Make sure that the staff is indentifying you each and every time they give you medications or before any treatment or test.The staff should check you identification bracelet as well as ask you your name and birth date before giving medications, treatments or tests. If they don’t ask, gently remind them.

These are just a few things that you as patients can do to help improve patient safety.Improving patient safety is a continuous process and requires constant communication between caregivers and patients. Do your part by speaking up and being an active member of your healthcare team.