5 Pillars of Safety in Healthcare®
Four Key Take-Aways
- A disciplined strategy based on five critical areas can impact infection transmission. Focusing on 1) hand hygiene, 2) process, 3) surface measurement, 4) augmentation, and 5) emerging solutions can mitigate transmission and HAI events. All five must work together in an integrated program fueled by people, protocols and products.
- Optimizing safety in a healthcare environment requires a holistic perspective. The Experience of everyone in the hospital must be considered - a safe place to heal, visit and work. And, every support service plays a key role in creating a safe, engaged experience. Safety begins with infection prevention but must include food safety, workplace safety, fire safety, etc. to create an environment where Patients want to come to heal and Staff wants to come to care.
- Safety and engaged experiences are inextricably linked in the Patient experience. An HAI event can cancel the memory of every smile and kind word experienced. And, in this consumer-driven environment, an HAI incident can impact the Hospital’s reputation. Patient perception is reality.
- Infection prevention is a daily discipline but a pandemic requires heightened expansion. Safety disciplines must be broader, deeper, more frequent and include new technologies. A pandemic playbook such as Compass One’s OMIT must be created that can be activated immediately.
