Volume 27
Number 7
April 1, 2016
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
`` Jill Huzinec (l) passes Joanne Phillips the “Olympic torch” of the Patient Safety Culture Survey.
`` Members of the ED unite for patient safety.
Every Day is Patient Safety Day!
Keeping our patients, employees and visitors safe is a year-round priority, but HUP’s annual Patient Safety Awareness Fair provides an opportunity for several departments to demonstrate — and educate staff about — some of the measures in place to improve safety. This year’s theme was “United for Patient Safety,” encouraging everyone in the health care process to make a difference in patient safety. Alarm fatigue is a major concern among hospitals nationwide. Medical equipment alarms in patient rooms alert staff to potential problems, but many units —
INSIDE New Chiller Plant Nets Large PECO Rebate..............................2 Creating a Warm and Comforting Environment.........3 Annual UPHS Health Fairs and Open Enrollment Coming in April........................................3 Providing PEACE of Mind.........4 What’s Up at HUP?....................4
especially critical care units — have so many medical devices that care providers can become desensitized to the sound. In addition, according to studies, up to 99 percent of alarms don’t require clinical intervention. But “for that one percent, it might be fatal to ignore,” said Kristin McCabe of the NICU. A special multidisciplinary committee at HUP is raising awareness and educating staff about safe and effective ways to decrease the number of times non-actionable alarms go off. For example, nurses can customize the parameters at which alarms sound to match the patient’s condition (as opposed to relying on the device’s default setting) so “when it does go off, it’s meaningful,” McCabe said. Proper hand hygiene always ranks as a top patient safety measure. Using “Glitter Bug” lotion and a black light, Kathy Pirolli, infection control specialist, demonstrated at the fair — and also on patient care units — the most common areas where viruses “hide” after hands are washed. “It’s especially
important to wash the area between the thumb and index finger and to scrub around the fingernails and rings,” she said. And always wash before entering and after leaving a patient’s room. Spores on high-touch surfaces, such as written medical charts, doorknobs and keypads, can survive for weeks! Jessica Williams of Nuclear Medicine explained how Radiology promotes an “image gently, image wisely” approach. Following best practices, “we lower a patient’s radiation exposure to the lowest possible dose for the best possible image,” she said. Carolyn Cutilli, of Patient and Family Education, stressed the importance of using health literacy universal precautions. “We don’t know who has low health literacy because patients often go out of their way to hide it,” she said. “So we need to teach things very simply, treat everyone as if they have low literacy. Many safety issues arise because patients don’t understand what we’re teaching.” (continued on page 2)
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