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2013
Awards
MH preparedness.
• Sharps safety. The center's safety officer
gathers the latest safety syringes, needles and
blades for staff to evaluate. She organizes them
in 3 drawer bins and has the assessment for
them already preprinted so all staff have to do
is circle the appropriate response for each item
they've evaluated. "Staff also enjoy being able
to evaluate new items that we might soon put
into our practice," says Ms. Bell.
• Preventing patient falls. Cityview's pre-op
phone call nurse does an extensive history
on patients to assess their fall risks, asking
about problems with dizziness or vertigo,
and assessing patients' fall risk scores. "If
any patients meet the requirements of our
fall risk criteria policy, we label them as a
fall risk," says Ms. Bell. Patients at risk for
falling wear name ID bands that are highlighted yellow. An orange dot goes on their
chart and W/C (meaning these patients will
require a wheelchair) is noted next to their
names on the schedule.
— Dan O'Connor
S E P T E M B E R 2013 | O U T PAT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E
