Preventing Patient Harm
Medication Safety
Being safe about your medications could save your life. One important safety tip is to know exactly what medications – prescriptions, over the counter medications and herbal supplements – you take, how much you take and when you take them…and to be able to give this information to your caregivers.
The Universal Medication Form is a chart to help you and your family members keep a current record of information that physicians need to know. The record includes immunizations, allergies, prescribed medications, and any vitamins, herbal supplements or over-the-counter medicines. Simply list all your medications and the physician(s) who prescribed them. Include any vitamins, herbal supplements, or over-the-counter medicines. Write neatly so that others can read your form and always keep this form with you. Whenever you change medications, indicate it on the form. Whenever there are a number of changes, fill out a new form.
You can also look up information on your medications.
Patient Wristband Alerts
Patient Wristband AlertsSouth Carolina hospitals have joined hospitals across the nation to adopt a standard color-coded “alert” wristband for patients. In the past, hospitals picked a color of their choice to alert medical professionals if a patient had certain allergies,were a fall risk or had End of Life Requests. For example, a hospital in one city may use a green colored wristband to signify that a patient has an allergy, while the hospital in the neighboring community may use the same color to identify patients that are at a high risk for falls.
On October 10, 2008, SCHA’s Board of Trustees adopted a resolution on color-coded patient wrist band alerts, based on recommendations from the SCHA Quality Council and the SCHA’s Patient Wrist Band Task Force. All agreed that statewide and national standardization of these visual cues is an appropriate risk reduction strategy for facilities that choose to use such alerts.
Neither the American Hospital Association nor SCHA resolution calls for mandatory use of these alerts as there are significant issues each hospital should consider when reviewing the usefulness of these tools. However, SCHA recommends that members using the alerts follow the national consensus, as outlined in the AHA Quality Advisory dated September 4, 2008.
SC CARES
South Carolina Comprehensive Adverse event and Response Evaluation System
The overarching goal of SC CARES is to help participating South Carolina hospitals reduce the number of medical errors and harmful patient events and reduce associated medical liability claims and costs.
The purpose of SC CARES is to develop a customized model system for South Carolina hospitals to report and investigate near misses and adverse events, disclose those events that result in significant patient harm, track rates and patterns of events/harm and effectively reduce adverse events through performance improvement and education.
We are now in the pilot phase of this project, partnering with a diverse group of South Carolina hospitals under the guidance of an interdisciplinary leadership team. This leadership team includes representatives from the participating pilot hospitals, key South Carolina medical liability insurance carriers, legal consultants and SCHA staff.
Accomplishments so far include creating a gap analysis to help the pilot hospitals assess how best to fully adopt a comprehensive adverse event program in their facilities; establishing a centralized system for reporting and trending adverse event data; and offering educational workshops on key elements of the program.
SCHA Risk Management Program
The SC Insurance Reserve Fund (IRF), the SC Joint Underwriting Association (JUA), and SC Patients Compensation Fund (PCF) have contracted with SCHA since the 1970s for clinical, general, and premises liability risk management consultative services. This program is instrumental in helping minimize liability exposures and medical malpractice premiums for hospitals, physicians, and allied health practitioners in S.C. To learn more about this program, please contact Karen Reeves.
SCHA-SCMA Uniform Credentialing Application Program (U CAP)
SCHA received a grant from The Duke Endowment to develop a web-based, uniform credentialing application for physicians and allied health practitioners in South Carolina to reduce costs, time and errors associated with the state's fragmented credentialing process. The program will also promote the use of telemedicine, especially tele-psychiatry, in our state. Implementation at pilot sites is underway. Please contact Karen Reeves if you would like more information.
