Sample Patient Safety Policy
Sample Patient Safety Policy
The ABC Hospital has always operated on the basis that the safety of patients is of the greatest importance. Success of the ABC Hospital patient safety effort depends upon a thorough understanding and acceptance of the following principles.
The prevention of patient injury must be the first consideration in all actions and is the responsibility of each employee and physician who practices in this hospital.
Rules and procedures to minimize the possibility of patient injury are essential parts of the patient safety initiative.
All patient care processes can be made safer, and it is the responsibility of administrative and medical staff leaders to ensure that this is accomplished.
It is the responsibility of all employees and physicians to:
1. Know and follow the rules and procedures applicable to their patient care and non-patient care duties. In addition to strict adherence to these rules, each person is responsible for using sound judgment and for being aware of potential hazards to patients before taking action.
2. Conduct their duties in such as way as to avoid harm to patients.
3. Promptly report events or situations of actual or potential patient harm.
It is the responsibility of management to:
1. Correct work conditions and faulty policies/procedures that increase the chance a patient will be harmed.
2. Inform physicians and employees of known potential patient safety hazards.
3. Train individuals and make equipment and appropriate resources available so that each person’s duties can be completed without causing injury to patients.
4. Promote a climate of nonpunitive error reporting and continuous patient safety improvement.
It is the responsibility of the organization’s administrative and medical staff leaders to:
1. Support ongoing efforts to reduce the likelihood of patent injury.
2. Promote studies of ways to improve patient safety in high-volume, high-risk, problem-prone patient care activities.
3. Incorporate proven patient safety improvement tactics into the patient care practices at ABC Hospital.
Source: Patrice Spath, RHIT, Brown-Spath Associates, Forest Grove, OR.
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