Safer Healthcare Now!
Note to Manitoba Teams - In only three years Safer Healthcare Now! has made dramatic improvements in reducing patient harm across Canada thanks to the dedicated work of the teams involved. As announced by Laurie Thompson, Executive Director of the Manitoba Institute for Patient Safety, Peggy Malone has been hired as the new Manitoba Coordinator for Safer Healthcare Now! It is our goal in conjunction with Ms. Tanis Rollefstad, the Western Node Safety Improvement Officer to work closely with all the Manitoba teams to help identify new learning opportunities and celebrate your success. You will be contacted you to set up a time when it would be convenient to meet with you and your teams. If you would like an earlier meeting please call and email and your request will be accommodated. Peggy Malone Phone: (204) 999-6658 Email : p_malone@shaw.ca
Safer Healthcare Now! (SHN) was launched in April, 2005. It is a campaign to enlist Canadian healthcare organizations in implementing six evidence-based interventions known to save lives. The interventions include:
- AMI – Improved care for Acute Myocardial Infarction: Increase survival rates by ensuring that six key elements are part of each AMI patient’s care.
- CLI – Prevention of Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infection: Prevent potentially fatal catheter-related bloodstream infections by following eight guidelines for the insertion and maintenance of a central line.
- MedRec - Medication Reconciliation: Catch drug errors before they can do harm by checking prescriptions against an up-to-date list of the patient’s home medications.
- RRT – Rapid Response Teams: Prevent deaths in patients outside the ICU by deploying rapid response teams of clinicians with critical care expertise.
- SSI – Prevention of Surgical Site Infection: Prevent surgical site infections and deaths from such infections by taking specific precautions before and after surgery.
- VAP - Prevention of Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia: Prevent the leading cause of death among hospital-acquired infections by implementing four essential practices.
SHN develops and adapts resources to support the work of participants. Getting Started Kits provide the key resource for each intervention. MP3 recordings from Information Calls are available. Campaign participants are welcome to visit the SHN Communities of Practice to find and share resources. These include the latest articles, website links and other tools contributed by individuals participating in the Campaign. SHN develops and adapts resources to support the work of participants. These are excellent resources for the ongoing work of teams on six interventions that have been shown to reduce harm and reduce preventable death.
In Canada, there are over 900 teams enrolled in SHN. In Manitoba, all Regional Health Authorities and a number of facilities are enrolled, encompassing 70+ teams. Visit Safer Healthcare Now! for a listing of enrollees across Canada. The Western Node, comprised of teams in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon, and the North West Territories, is supported by a Leader and Safety Improvement Officer. MIPS, along with our western counterparts, supports the operation of the Western Node.
The following four interventions and two pilot projects were announced in April, 2008.
New interventions:
- Adverse drug events in long-term care – implement medication reconciliation to prevent adverse drug events (ADEs) in long-term care settings.
Lead: Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) Canada. - Falls in long-term care - prevent harm resulting from falls in long-term care settings
Lead: Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO). - MRSA – Preventing harm from antibiotic-resistant organisms– implement a series of evidence-based guidelines to prevent harm from antibiotic resistant organisms
Lead: Dr. Michael Gardam, University Health Network, Toronto. - Venous thromboembolism (VTE) – implement a series of protocols to ensure that general surgery and hip fracture surgery patients receive the appropriate thromboprophylaxis to prevent complications such as deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolus.
Lead: Dr. William Geerts, of the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Ontario.
Pilot Projects:
- Prevent adverse drug events related to high risk medication delivery in paediatrics
- Prevent adverse drug events through Medication Reconciliation in home care
For information on all original and new interventions, and to enroll in Safer Healthcare Now, go to www.safehealthcarenow.ca
Measurement and Spread
Organizations are encouraged to build on the implementation and measurement activities, including the SPREAD of these interventions to all applicable units throughout your organization. You will continue to be supported by the SHN National Steering Committee, the Central Measurement Team, Clinical Supports (Canadian ICU Collaborative, ISMP Canada and the Canadian Association of Paediatric Health Centres) and your Node/Quebec Campaign to improve the safety and quality of healthcare provided to Canadians.
Measurement is a key component of SHN, being central to the quality improvement cycle upon which it is based. Teams ask “How have things changed?”, which requires measurement over time to answer the question. Teams use this information to make changes in the way in which they are implementing the interventions, and by doing so, continually improve. Teams report to a Central Measurement Team, who collect the data and develop a quarterly report for teams. The report allows teams to compare their individual performance to the national, node and implementation stage average for each intervention. Reporting centrally contributes to sharing lessons learned and to assessing overall campaign results.
SHN is patterned after the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI’s) 100,000 lives Campaign, which recently concluded. On December 12, 2006, the IHI announced a second phase of their work, called “5 Million Lives”. They have identified additional interventions that are evidence based and have been shown to save lives and prevent harm to patients. For more information, go to the IHI website.