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Brockville General Hospital |
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News Release |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Brockville—Brockville General Hospital (BGH) is ready to post the first quarterly report on its Quality Improvement Plan and the results are positive. “The three targeted areas for our Quality Improvement Plan (QIP) are Falls Prevention Strategy, Medication Reconciliation, and Hand Hygiene,” says Heather Crawford, BGH VP Clinical Services and Chief Nursing Executive. “In all three, we have seen healthy improvement.” BGH staff has seen a steady decline in patient falls, and Crawford credits this to the increase in staff education and awareness. “We have more education to more staff now on Falls Prevention Protocol, targeting people right from orientation through to the annual Core Program.” Medication reconciliation is now at 100% for patients presenting and/or being admitted in the Emergency Department on weekdays, with the addition of a pharmacy technician full time in the ER Monday to Friday. “Hand Hygiene results are at a steady average of 85%,” adds Crawford, “exceeding our target of 75%. This time last year, it was a challenge even to get enough auditors. Now we have 40.” In June 2010, the Ontario Government passed the Excellent Care for All Act—legislation designed to support hospitals to further improve the quality and safety of care they provide. One element of this support is through public reporting of Quality Improvement Plans to enhance accountability. “BGH has had a Strategic Plan in place for some years now that is updated regularly,” explains Heather Crawford, CNE/VP Clinical Services for BGH, “but with ECFAA the hospitals need to pinpoint three main focuses, steps chosen to address improvement, and how these would work with other related initiatives.” The three areas of improvement targeted by BGH for the coming year were chosen for a variety of reasons. “Medication reconciliation is a requirement of Accreditation Canada,” says Crawford, “and BGH has a focus on medication reconciliation throughout the organization. We needed to ensure that this first step (in the Emergency Department) is completed accurately. BGH had noticed an increase in falls,” she continues, ”so we wanted to focus on our fall and injury prevention program to ensure it is reflective of best practice in reducing falls. Hand hygiene reporting is mandated by government, and is fundamental to our ability to contain infection and to prevent infection from occurring in hospital.”
The QIP updates will be posted quarterly on the BGH web site at www.bgh-on.ca With BGH marking its own Patient Safety Month in November, the news is timely. “Ultimately,” says Crawford “the QIP ensures that we are accountable to both the patient and his/her family, and to our staff. This formalizes a process that has been in place for many years in healthcare.” For more information, please contact:
Healthy people – Outstanding Care
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