SDS Accreditation Update: Escort now ensures correct patient ID
SDS Accreditation Update
Escort now ensures correct patient ID
It wasn't a surgical procedure that almost tripped up the staff at Blue Ridge Surgery Center. It was a pain procedure, says Suzanne L. Broome, RN, director of the Seneca, SC, facility.
"Our pain clinic is just across the lobby from the surgery center, and we got a call that the physician was sending a patient over for immediate treatment," she recalls. "A patient arrived; we began preparing her for the procedure and, as we took the history and physical, we discovered that it was not the patient we were expecting." The "real" patient was in the waiting room, and the patient her staff were preparing had an appointment in the pain clinic, she says.
Luckily, the nurse taking the history and physical recognized that the patient did not have the symptoms for which the procedure was used to treat, but the patient did not realize she was in the wrong place, says Broome. "Now, if the pain clinic is sending us a patient for immediate treatment, a pain clinic staff person walks the patient to us," she says.
All encouraged to collect data
Although reporting of near misses is mandatory only in Pennsylvania, Doering says all surgery programs should collect the information. A patient safety committee within the program should collect and analyze the information to identify opportunities to prevent more adverse events, he says.
"The facility should also recognize that people are going to make mistakes and although every mistake should not be excused, an environment that promotes open communication in the name of patient safety is going to be safer for the patient," Doering says.
It wasn't a surgical procedure that almost tripped up the staff at Blue Ridge Surgery Center. It was a pain procedure, says Suzanne L. Broome, RN, director of the Seneca, SC, facility.Subscribe Now for Access
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