To further enhance quality of care and patient safety, hospitals across the Island are participating in the Safer Healthcare Now! Campaign.
This national campaign is coordinated and operated by the Canadian Patient Safety Institute (CPSI). The program is designed to reduce the number of preventable complications and deaths in Canadian hospitals. It focuses on six strategies, that will improve the safety of patient care through learning, sharing and implementing best practices.
“The Department of Health is committed to providing the safest healthcare environment for Islanders,” said Doug Currie, Minister of Health. “In addition to our participation in the Safer Healthcare Now! program, a provincial committee has been established to develop and implement a strategy to enhance patient safety throughout the health system.”
There is a national focus on improving patient safety in acute care facilities across the country. This focus is built into the accreditation system and supported by the Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation. Recommendations for improving patient safety were outlined in this year’s accreditation results for the provincial health system.
The PEI Department of Health has partnered with the other Atlantic provinces to support the Safer Healthcare Now! Campaign. “Quality teams of physicians, nurses and managers have received preliminary training from Safer Healthcare Now! representatives in Atlantic Canada,” said Janet Hodder, Quality Coordinator for the Department of Health. “During the training, teams learned how to implement the strategies that are most appropriate for their healthcare facilities. They will be responsible for delivering the same training to their coworkers and monitoring the results.”
Quality teams have implemented four of the six Safer Healthcare Now! strategies in acute care facilities across the Island. Strategies will help improve medication processes by creating the best possible medication history for every patient, reduce the risk of infection after surgery, assist patients recovering from a heart-attack, and reduce the risk of pneumonia infection for patients requiring a ventilator.
“Physicians and front-line healthcare professionals are looking forward to being involved in this initiative,” said Dr. Peter MacKean, Chief of Staff at the Prince County Hospital. “These strategies have already been successfully implemented at various sites across Canada and we are confident that this program will enhance the quality of care provided to our patients here in Prince Edward Island.”