Quality Corner

November Highlights of Performance Improvement at SHC
Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Committee [QIPSC],
chaired by Joseph Hopkins, associate chief of staff

• New 2008 Joint Commission Standards

  • Medication Safety – decrease risk of anticoagulation
  • Early recognition and response to changes in a patient’s condition
  • Allow RNs to give Influenza and pneumococcal vaccines under MD approved protocol
  • Nine new standards on emergency preparedness

• National Patient Safety Goals

  • Unapproved abbreviations — 17 percent increase
  • Hand hygiene compliance — improved from 42 to 57 percent

• Medical Emergency Response

  • Inpatient non-ICU cardiac arrest levels have decreased to the lowest rate reported since the RRT [Rapid Response Team] began in the 2nd quarter of 2006 — 0.86 per 1,000 discharges
  
  Patients admitted to ICU after an RRT call decreased to 12.5 percent
  
  The percentage of patients remaining on their unit after an RRT intervention increased to 42 percent

• Hospital-acquired pressure ulcer
  
  rates low and significantly better than the CalNOC (California Nursing Outcomes Coalition) benchmark at 2 percent for second quarter of 2007