Provider - Patient Safety

Patient Safety - Overview & Contact Information

Patient Safety is the cornerstone for providing high quality healthcare.  In 1999, The Institute of Medicine (IOM) defined patient safety as “the prevention of harm to patients.”  Patient safety efforts emphasize the reporting, analysis and prevention of medical error and adverse healthcare events. 

Georgia’s Partnership for Health and Accountability (PHA) recognizes patient safety as a top level priority.  PHA describes the elements that support a culture of safety in healthcare organizations including a pervasive commitment to patient safety, open communication, a blame-free environment, and the importance of safety design in preventing future errors. 

Healthcare error is defined as a preventable adverse effect of care, whether or not it is evident or harmful to the patient.  Factors that contribute to health care errors include:

  1. Human Factors
  2. Medical Complexity
  3. System Failures
  4. Technology in healthcare settings
  5. Health literacy

Because errors, particularly adverse events, are caused by the cumulative effects of smaller errors within organizational structures and processes of care, it makes sense to focus on systems and processes, versus individuals.  A systems approach allows you to target key strategies such as teamwork, effective communication and promoting a culture of safety. 

Safety culture can be defined as the set of values, beliefs, and norms about what’s important, what attitudes are appropriate, and how to behave when it comes to patient safety.  PHA recognizes and supports IOM’s call for hospitals to embrace the call for action and development of patient safety programs.

Patient safety initiatives include application of lessons learned from business and industry, advancing technologies, education of providers and of the public and disclosure of errors.  Success in promoting patient safety and creating a culture of safety requires the commitment of the organizational leaders and the front line staff. 

Patient safety efforts encourage patients and families to become more involved in their own care.  Patient participation in the healthcare team can lead not only to improvement in the quality of care they receive, but improvement of outcomes as well.  Customized care meets the patient’s needs and preferences along with their desires and beliefs.  This partnership and shared decision making is vital when working in such a complex environment as healthcare.  It makes sense that the higher the safety culture and patient involvement, the safer and better the quality of care. 

PHA offers support to all of its member hospitals and provides toolkits, survey tools, data analysis support, adverse event reporting, and numerous educational opportunities.  Please visit our website to view all of our program activities and reports. 

Purpose
To promote evidence-based best practices to enhance patient safety, improve care, reduce risk and prevent errors through creating a blame-free system and neutral non-punitive forum for sharing, studying, and learning from medical variances, including near misses.

Objectives

    1. Create a blame-free system and neutral non-punitive forum for sharing, studying, and learning from non-fatal errors/"near misses."
    2. Support hospitals in utilizing The Joint Commission sentinel event structure for other reportable events.
      To create an environment for accomplishment of Proposed Objectives 1 and 2.
    3. Support the use of evidence-based medicine for the purpose of identifying and sharing clinical methods that promote improved results.

Guiding Principles - The work of the committee should:

    • Recognize that the physician is ultimately responsible for medical treatment decisions
    • Support the concept that physician performance should be reviewed by physician peers
    • Promote accountability to the public
    • Be proactive and voluntary
    • Involve multiple public and private stakeholders
    • Utilize a continuous improvement rather than a punitive approach
    • Provide for a climate of trust
    • Solicit resources and buy-in to support a long term commitment
    • Develop a repository that provides for confidential peer review protected information
    • Analyze trends and identify, develop, and share best practice techniques
    • Provide educational programs

Program Scope - Add information

Contact Us - To contact PHA, please click the CONTACT US button located on the left side of our web page.

For more information: pha@gha.org
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PHA - Safety Alert

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2010 Quality & Patient Safety Award Application and Information

  • Click HERE for the 2010 application (Adobe PDF Version)
  • Click HERE for the 2010 application (Word Version)
The PHA Quality and Patient Safety Award recognizes health care organizations for achievement in reducing the risk of medical errors and improving patient safety and medical outcomes.The 2009 PATIENT SAFETY & QUALITY AWARD WINNERS have been chosen!

2009 Quality and Patient Safety Winners
Click on the hospital name to view the abstract. Click on the contact name to obtain further information about the project.

Circle of Excellence Award

This award is for hospitals that have demonstrated a sustained commitment to quality and patient safety as evidenced by not only winning a patient safety award in 2008, but also by earning three or more PHA Patient Safety Awards within the previous five years.

  • Emory Healthcare - CEO: John Fox
  • Habersham Medical Center - CEO: Richard Dwozan
  • Redmond Regional Medical Center - CEO: Brenda Waltz
  • St. Francis Hospital - CEO: Robert Granger

 

Critical Access Hospitals

Louis Smith Memorial Hosptial
Implementing an eMAR System in a Critical Access Hospital: Improving Medication Safety Through Technology

CEO : Neil Ginty
Project Leader : Bill Wilson

Lower Oconee Community Hospital

Fall Protocol Revision

CEO : Andy Smith
Project Leader : Karen Lowther, RN

Less Than 100 Beds

Habersham County Medical Center

Transition of Care

CEO : Richard Dwozan
Project Leader: Teri Newsome

Second Place:

Stephens County Hospital

Surgical Care Improvement Project

CEO : Ed Gambrell, Jr.
Project Leader : Tina DeBord

Grady General Hospital

GRITS (Georgia Registry of Immunization Transactions and Services) Reporting Compliance

CEO : LaDon Toole
Project Leader : Candy Tabb, RN

100 - 299 Beds

Hughston Hospital

Improving SCIP Core Measure Performance

CEO: James Wheeler, FACHE
Project Leader : Freya Gilbert, RN

Piedmont Newnan Hospital

"Big Dot" - Focus on Mortality Reduction

CEO : Michael Bass
Project Leader : Anna Ivory

Redmond Regional Medical Center

Reducing Patients' and Employees' Environmental and Infection Control Risks through Effective Rounding

CEO : Brenda Waltz
Project Leader : Terri Aaron, RN, BSN, CIC

 

Greater Than 300 Beds

Tie for first place

University Hospital

Sepsis: Find It Fast, Treat It Faster

CEO : Larry Read
Project Leader : Heidi Nelson

University Hospital

Pneumonia: Seeking Performance Excellence One Breath at a Time

CEO : Larry Read
Project Leader : Heidi Nelson

. St. Francis Hospital

Implementing a STEMI Management Program to Meet New Thresholds in AMI Care

CEO : Robert Granger
Project Leader : Kristie Johnson, RN

.St. Francis Hospital

From No to Go: Implementing a Patient/Family Activated Rapid Response Team

CEO : Robert Granger
Project Leader : Maggie Monahan, RN

 
Hospitals & Health Systems

Emory Healthcare

"Saving Lives One at a Time" - Achieving rapid patient rescue by partnering with all disciplines, patients and families in activating Code MET (Medical Emergency Team)

CEO : John Fox
Project Leader : Cathy Wood, RN

Piedmont Healthcare

Severe Sepsis Prevention

CEO : Tim Stack
Project Leader : Paul Stagg

WellStar Health System
Improving Best Practice Care by Increasing Pneumococcal and
Influenza Vaccination Rates for Inpatients

CEO : Dr. Gregory Simone
Project Leader : Amber Barrett

Josh Nahum Special Achievement Award
for Infection Prevention and Control

This award was given to hospitals, on behalf of Josh's Parents, Armando and Victoria Nahum, and the Safe Care Campaign.org .  Thank you to Amanda DePalma and the Kimberly-Clark Corporation, for their support of this award .  Congratulations to the hospitals for their successful infection prevention and control initiatives.

Emory University Hospital Midtown
Getting to ZERO with the Development of a Nurse-Directed PICC Team

CEO :John Fox
Project Leader : Valerie Croft, RNC, NIC

WellStar Health System
Healthcare Associated Infections: Driving to Zero Together

CEO : Dr. Gregory Simone
Project Leader : Marcia Delk, MD

Gwinnett Hospital System

Striving for Zero MRSA

CEO : Philip Wolfe
Project Leader : Suzanne Compau


To view previous winners, click on one of the following links:

For more information regarding the PHA Quality & Patient Safety Award, please email us at: pha@gha.org

Patient Safety Network - If you are not automatically redirected, please click here

 

For more information: pha@gha.org or contact Sue Fuller

Patient Safety - Patient Safety Organization

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Patient Safety - Required Submissions

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Co

mmunity Health
View PHA publications including consumer guides about Georgia's hospitals & healthcare Individual – Be part of the health care team. You, as a consumer of health care, can make a difference in your health and wellness. Find the resources you need to provide safety & promote excellence in patient care Community health information to incoporate into your hospital health planning View your survey submission status Go back to the PHA homepage Patient Safetylinks to Committees and initiatives Come together as a community to improve the health of all of your citizens.