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| Patient safety campaign enters long-term care After more than two years of helping health-care providers increase patient safety in acute care settings, Safer Healthcare Now (SHN) is taking its first official foray into long-term care. The second phase of the SHN Campaign, aimed at reducing the number of preventable complications and fatalities though the implementation of specific strategies called interventions, was announced July 5. Two interventions aimed directly at long-term care homes were unveiled including medication reconciliation and prevention of falls in long-term care. "We see the opportunity to improve the safety and care in long-term care," says Cynthia Majewski, SHN's Ontario node leader. Since April 2005, more than 600 teams representing about 185 health-care organizations have been participating in the largest national campaign to improve patient safety in Canadian history. Majewski says several healthcare organizations outside the realm of acute care have taken notice of the campaign prior to the long-term care expansion and have signed up. Canadian Patient Safety Institute CEO and SHN steering committee chair Phil Hassen says he has spoken to a number of professionals working in the long-term sector who are interested in the campaign. One of the long-term care interventions is medication reconciliation, modeled after a similar acute care intervention. Medication Reconciliation is a process designed to reduce the number of adverse drug events and injury associated with the loss of medical information as patients transfer from one care setting to another. SHN says the intervention may prevent up to 70 per cent of potential errors and 15 per cent of adverse drug events. The second intervention is aimed at reducing the number of falls and resulting harm in long-term care. According to Health Canada, 50 per cent of long-term care residents fall each year. Almost half of those residents will fall two or more times. About 10 percent of falls result in serious injury, 5 per cent of which result in bone fractures. Although the getting started kits for the new interventions won't be ready until September, Hassen is urging health organizations 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. |
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