Patient safety campaign newsworthy in ‘07
Friday December 21, 2007 -- Jason Thompson
Although Safer Healthcare Now (SHN) has been around since 2005, the patient safety campaign was the subject of many articles on the Healthcare Insurance Reciprocal of Canada (HIROC) News site as more than 70 HIROC subscribers have signed on.

The SHN campaign is aimed at reducing the number of preventable complications and fatalities though the implementation of six specific strategies called interventions. SHN officials lauded the campaign in an April news release, calling it a success but with the stipulation that more participation is needed.

"With more participation, full implementation of the interventions, and all hospitals measuring and reporting results, we can make a difference and reduce the incidence of injuries and deaths related to adverse events," Dr. Ross Baker, a member of the SHN steering committee, said in the news release.

Indeed a number of hospitals are already seeing the impact SHN participation is having on patient safety in their own organizations.

For example, the Eastern Regional Integrated Health Authority (RIHA), a HIROC subscriber in Newfoundland and Labrador, has witnessed a 25 per cent decline in the number of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) cases as a result of implementing SHN’s VAP intervention.

Since joining the SHN campaign, Alexandra Hospital, a HIROC subscriber in Ingersoll, Ont., has reduced its number of medication transcription errors.

Lisa Gardner, the director of patient care, says SHN’s medication reconciliation tool allowed Alexandra Hospital to identify were transcription errors were being made and act to eliminate them.

These are small examples of work being done all over the country in the name of patient safety.

There was also some discussion in 2007 related to the SHN campaign expanding beyond the borders of acute care and into the world of long-term and community.

The second phase of the campaign, aimed at reducing the number of preventable complications and fatalities though the implementation of six specific strategies called interventions, was announced July 5 along with four new interventions and two pilot projects.

The new interventions focus on adverse drug events in long-term care, falls in long-term care, antibiotic resistant organisms and venous thromboembolism.

The two pilot projects announced by SHN focus on the prevention of adverse drug events through medication reconciliation in home care and high risk medication delivery in pediatric care.

The reason they were chosen as pilot projects as opposed to interventions, is because there isn’t a lot of evidenced based data to support their effectiveness.

Healthcare organizations are urged to examine the potential impact the interventions could have on patient safety and decide whether to take them on.

For more information, visit www.saferhealthcarenow.ca.