It’s National Patient Safety Awareness Week!
This week - March 11-17 - is National Patient Safety Awareness Week, with a focus on getting patients engaged in their own healthcare journeys. The week is sponsored by the National Patient Safety Foundation, but it’s something that we care about every day in our work at Skilled Wound Care.
This is a week to remember that the patient is just as much a part of the medical team as the doctor, nurse, or any other healthcare provider. In the course of our work, we should make an extra effort to ensure that patients are engaged, that they’re asking questions, and that they feel free to communicate any questions or concerns with their entire caregiving team.
“Making sure patients and families feel that it’s okay to speak up and ask questions is really a critical element in patient safety,” said Tejal K. Gandhi, MD, MPH, CPPS, Chief Clinical and Safety Officer, IHI. “Even health professionals sometimes fear speaking up, and that’s directly tied to the culture of the organization in which they work. In order to improve, health care organizations need to see flaws or gaps in safety, encourage people to report problems when they see them, and take action to correct them.”
As partners in healing, our providers have a unique perspective on care as they come into facilities. In addition to helping with education and providing the highest quality of wound care, we can also help make communication and patient engagement better. There is almost no better predictor of positive health outcomes than patient engagement and compliance - it’s always one of our highest priorities!
To this end, the sponsors of National Patient Safety Awareness Week (@TheIHI) are hosting a Twitter chat this Friday, March 16, from 12pm to 1pm Eastern Time. Anyone is welcome to participate with the hashtag #PSAW18.
This week, let’s all work to help patients get involved with their healthcare, and to feel comfortable asking questions. And when we, as healthcare professionals, see errors happening, let’s remember to speak up, too.
Skilled Wound Care is a mobile surgical practice committed to transforming the chronic wound care model in nursing facilities. Wound care experts make weekly bedside visits to patients in long-term care facilities, avoiding transfers to hospitals or clinics. Our expert physicians give patients the most up-to-date and effective wound treatments, and educate facility staff on how to help patients continue to heal quickly and effectively between visits. This model of collaborative care allows SWC’s physicians to improve patients’ lives and health outcomes, to empower nursing staff, and to raise public awareness. Skilled Wound Care, along with its nurse and nursing home partners, is working every day to positively transform traditional nursing home wound care.