Empower yourself with these 10 tips for a safe hospital stay and help celebrate Patient Safety Awareness Week ‚ March 7-13, 2010.
- Insist on clean hands to prevent the spread of infection. This goes for all the medical staff as well as family and visitors. If you don’t see someone wash their hands or use an alcohol-based solution, politely ask them.
- Help prevent medication mix-ups by insisting that staff check your wristband each time they give you a drug, draw a blood sample or perform a test. Ensure that the information on your wristband is accurate especially if you have any drug allergies.
- If a medication looks different than you expect, ask the nurse to double-check it.
- Understand why a test or procedure is being performed. Every study or lab test is performed to answer a specific question. Ask is there are alternatives.
- Don’ get out of bed without help unless you are told you can. New medications can make you feel fine lying down, but can make you less stable on your feet.
- Write down questions as they occur to you, and then ask your nurse or physician for answers. At discharge be sure to get clear instructions on what you should and should not do.
- Tell your caregivers about all medications you take at home, including supplements and over-the-counter medications. If possible compile a drug list of current medications and dosages to be placed in your chart.
- Prepare a living will. Make sure this is in your record. Appoint a health-care proxy to make sure doctors follow your wishes if you are incapacitated and issues arise that are not in your living will.
- If possible, appoint your own advocate to stay at your bedside during your stay. This individual can serve as another set of eyes and ears when receiving information from healthcare professionals and can also be alert to any deviation in care that might adversely affect the patient (food being given to a patient who is not supposed to have anything by mouth prior to surgery, ensuring staff wash their hands, etc.)
- If something doesn’ seem right, tell your nurse or physician. If your concerns are still not addressed request to speak to the charge nurse or the hospitals patient advocate.
Needless to say having a safe hospital stay is important to your health. All hospitals should follow accepted standards of practice to prevent hospital-acquired conditions such as a transfusion with the wrong type of blood, sever pressure ulcers (bed sores) or catheter associated urinary tract infections(UTI). The National Quality Forum (NQF) has defined a category of events as Serious Reportable Adverse Events, commonly referred to as “never events.‚Äù “Never events‚Äù such as surgery on a wrong body part, surgery on a wrong patient or wrong surgery on a patient are obviously very serious and hospitals are severely punished and reimbursement is withheld. As a result hospitals have strict quality assurance protocols and in-house quality officers to reduce the likelihood of these events occurring.
If you have questions about the quality of care provided by a specific hospital in your area, check out the quality reports at HealthGrades.com. Visitors to HealthGrades can find quality ratings and cost information for over 5,000 hospitals across the U.S. If you have concerns about the quality of care you received while a patient in the hospital call the Quality Improvement Organization in your state. Call 1-800-633-4227 to get your state specific number.
Hospitals perform a complex dance each day. They normally run in a well-choreographed manner with many professionals all performing at their best. However the reality is that because of the complex nature of administering healthcare to unique patients every in-patient admission is different and needs acute focus on each patient’s needs. Keeping these 10 tips in mind will help to ensure the safety of any future hospital visits.