National Patient Safety Efforts Save 125,000 Lives

Report on Rationale for New & Revised National Patient Safety Goals

Beginning January 1, 2017, Joint Commission-accredited nursing care centers are required to “implement evidence-based practices to prevent indwelling CAUTIs.”

According to the Joint Commission, the new National Patient Safety Goal will improve patient safety and mortality and reduce the costs and lengths of stay associated with CAUTIs. New elements of performance (EPs) include:

• Educating staff and licensed independent practitioners involved in the use of indwelling urinary catheters about CAUTI and the importance of infection prevention.
• Developing written criteria, using established evidence-based guidelines, for placement of an indwelling urinary catheter.
• Following written procedures based on established evidence-based guidelines for inserting and maintaining an indwelling urinary catheter.
• Measuring and monitoring CAUTI prevention processes and outcomes in high-volume areas.

Source: The Joint Commission

Read more about the new TJC SAFER Matrix here.

How Hospital Room Design Can Prevent Falls

Can the way a hospital room is designed reduce the risk of patient falls? That’s the question Debajyoti Pati is attempting to answer. He is professor of environmental design in the College of Human Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock.

Pati and his team created a mock hospital room and bathroom to study what, if any, physical elements contribute to patient falls. The team monitored patients aged 70 and older.

They found older adults frequently fell when they were performing four actions: pushing, pulling, grabbing and turning. The team also discovered that IV design is a contributor to falls because many people struggle with managing and navigating the pole while trying not to step on the IV pole’s base.

Researchers found that many of the postures involved in frequent falls have to do with navigating bathroom configuration — shutting the door, using grab bars, flushing the toilet — as getting around objects to get to the bathroom itself.

In their next phase of research, Pati’s team will focus on design solutions to increase patient safety.

Source: Health Facilities Management

National Patient Safety Efforts Save 125,000 Lives

Data released from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) shows health care is being made safer.

According to HHS, nearly 125,000 fewer patients died due to hospital-acquired conditions and more than $28 billion in healthcare costs were saved over five years.

Source: HHS

TJC SAFTER Matrix eBook

Last week's blog post: The Joint Commission's SAFER Matrix: Definitions & Examples