Showing support for World Patient Safety Day
15 November 2019
This year marked the first ever World Patient Day. WHO (World Health Organisation) launched the global campaign on the 17 September 2019 to create awareness of patient safety and urge people to show their commitment to making the healthcare environment safer.
At Spire Portsmouth Hospital we are dedicated to providing excellent clinical care and used this opportunity to focus on key patient safety issues with patients and staff.
Teaching sessions
On the day we held short teaching sessions for 42 members of clinical and non-clinical staff, where we discussed key patient safety issues and watched one (or more) short videos focusing on the safety topics ‘Just Culture’, ‘Speaking Up’ and ‘How small errors can cause big problems’.
Our patients were encouraged to be more actively involved in their own care by ensuring they provide us with accurate patient details and ensure they ask plenty of questions throughout their journey with us. We stressed to everyone that safer healthcare starts with good communication.
Hand hygiene audit
From the 17 to 18 of September we carried out a patient led hand hygiene audit in which 13 patients agreed to participate and report to us any instances of hand hygiene non-compliance.
These patients were visited a total of 38 times by our clinical staff and consultants. Our patients monitored all ‘five moments of hand hygiene’ throughout each visit and of the 38 times, three episodes of non-compliance were identified making the overall compliance rate 92% compliant.
Staff pledges
We also asked staff to make a safety pledge. Examples were:
- Having my flu jab to protect myself, patients and colleagues
- Sharing safety concerns and ideas for fixing them
- Actively sharing organisational learning
- Remembering to advise patients ‘call don’t fall’
- Being particularly vigilant about data being correct and use of Egress to send confidential or sensitive information by email
Paula Durham, Clinical Governance Lead said: "I’d like to personally thank everyone involved for their efforts. It’s clear that Spire Portsmouth fully embraced the awareness campaign and showed their commitment to improving patient safety."
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