CHC joins state initiative highlighting OB and ER patient safety
Associated Press
Battle Creek Enquirer - December 22, 2009

Cotnent Source

CHC is partnering with Michigan Health and Hospital Association (MHA) Keystone Center for Patient Safety & Quality and 70 other Michigan hospitals in two collaborative efforts.

The MHA Keystone: ER collaborative seeks to prevent patient harm in hospital emergency rooms by improving safety, reducing overcrowding and treating blood poisoning in the early stages. This goal will be accomplished by making sure the most critically ill patients receive care first, reducing the likelihood a patient will leave the hospital before receiving necessary care.

“The Emergency Department always strives to provide safe patient care,” said Marion Labadie R.N., Nurse Director of the CHC ER. “Being involved with the MHA Keystone Project will help us improve and enhance patient care.”

The other half of the collaborative effort is the MHA Keystone: Obstetrics. This portion focuses on preventing harm to mothers giving birth and their newborns. This is done primarily through timely interventions for elective induction of labor, coordinating the safe progression of labor and appropriate responses to fetal distress. This includes improving patient safety through influencing practices and attitudes.

“Patient safety has always been at the forefront of our care of mothers and their unborn babies,” CHC Obstetrics Nurse Supervisor Helene Pariseau-Racey R.N. said. “CHC's medical and nursing staff has already been practicing many standards of care that fall in line with the objectives of the OB Keystone project. Officially becoming involved in the project seems to be a natural progression.”

The MHA anticipates that as a result of these collaborative efforts, patients will receive more efficient, higher quality and safer care and that both patient and staff satisfaction will increase.