Patient Safety

RCRMC is committed to fostering a safe environment that ensures and encourages patient safety.  Efforts to support this commitment involve coordinated actions and communication between the staff, physicians, and hospital senior leadership, as well as involvement and education of patients and their families.

Patient safety is incorporated into the orientation and continuing education of all staff, physicians, and volunteers.  This education includes the expectation that patient safety events and risks to patient safety will be reported.  Staff competence issues related to patient safety are identified in the performance and competency evaluation process and is addressed on an individual, department or hospital-wide basis.  This education includes, but is not limited to:

• General Orientation
• Department Specific Orientation
• Nursing and New Grad Nursing Orientation
• Annual Skills Days
• Annual Re-certification
• Department/unit in-service education
• Newsletters

Education is provided by the Patient Safety Officer, Education Services, Human Resources, Directors and Chairs of Departments, and others as warranted.

The safety of healthcare delivery is enhanced by the involvement of the patient, appropriate to their condition, as a partner in the healthcare process.  Patients and families are educated about their responsibility in helping to facilitate the safe delivery of care.

At RCRMC patient safety is very important.  The goal is to provide exceptional care and services, and patients are encouraged to actively participate in their own care. Concerns about care, treatment, or services can be directed to the Hospital Patient Advocate at (951) 486-4313; or issues regarding patient safety can be reported on the Safety Hotline at (951) 486-4699.

The Joint Commission, the Centers of Medicare/Medicaid Services (CMS), and the Department of Health Services (DHS), as well as California Code of Regulations (CCR) Title XXII, all require that RCRMC comply with a myriad of regulations and standards affecting patient care and safety.  Joint Commission, CMS, and DHS are also authorized to make unannounced surveys or audits, which involve observing hospital operations to ensure high quality patient care and safety.  RCRMC is committed to being proactive and in a state of constant readiness by establishing an RCRMC Regulatory Compliance Team tasked with daily monitoring of hospital operations and patient safety.

A Regulatory Compliance Team member designated by senior leadership functions as the RCRMC Patient Safety Officer and is the chair of the Patient Safety Committee.  The committee is responsible for the initial review of potential risk activities, recommendations and action planning for proactive risk reductions.   

National Patient Safety Goals
Joint Commission publishes a list of national patient safety goals (NPSG) each year.  RCRMC is committed to fully support these goals.

The Joint Commission’s 2008 NPSGs are:

• Improve the accuracy of patient identification
• Improve the effectiveness of communication among caregivers
• Improve the safety of using medications
• Reduce the risk of health care associated infections
• Accurately & completely reconcile medications across the continuum of care
• Reduce the risk of patient harm resulting from falls
• Implementation of a standardized approach for “hand off communications”
• Identify safety risks inherent to our population
• Patient safety strategy
• Reduce the likelihood of patient harm associated with anticoagulation therapy
• Improve recognition and response to changes in a patient’s condition

Core Measures
Joint Commission requires accredited hospitals to collect and submit performance data on three of the following measure sets:

• Acute Myocardial infarction (heart attack)
• Heart failure
• Community acquired pneumonia

This requirement was established to improve the safety and quality of care and to support performance improvement in hospitals.  The Core Measure Initiative allows Joint Commission to review data trends and to work with hospitals as they use the information to improve patient care.