Prioritising patients' needs every day

In honour of Patient Safety Awareness Week, Medcare Hospitals and Medical Centres highlights the actions it takes to better the experience of its patients

Zero patient harm

Though CT scans produce only a small amount of radiation, excessive scan procedures can be harmful to patients.

To counteract this,Medcare implemented a real-time CT Dose Index Monitoring software which has given a compliance above 98 per cent, thus allowing the hospital to keep our patients safe from excessive radiation exposure and possible harm."

Effective and safe communication protocols

Applying a standardised communication protocol for immediate action to the critical results from lab and diagnostics tests, critical results are conveyed to doctors in a timely manner to be incorporated into treatment within 15 minutes.

Staying on top of this international patient safety initiative with consistent monitoring helped Medcare keep its compliance level at 100 per cent, and thus ensuring safe patient care.

From manual to automation

The LEAN philosophy guided Medcare's approach to automating microbiology reports. LEAN is a structured way to solve problems that cause waste in a system.

The reduction in the turnaround time for the report has helped Medcare's physicians take timely decisions. The antibiograms generated has aided in increasing the judicious use of antibiotics in the hospital.

Medcare is also able to save five to six man-hours per day of the infection control department, which now has the flexibility to focus on surveillance rounds.

Protecting newborns

During the cold winter months, premature infants are more vulnerable to the highly contagious respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Medcare is consistent in following simple safety measures like strict visitation policies, posters and special awareness sessions for staff and parents, all in an effort to protect newborns. These have helped the hospital achieve zero RSV infections at our facility for the last two years.

Listening to the patients

At Medcare Hospital Sharjah, a survey was introduced to gather and measure patient-reported experience. It compared 'what actually happened' while receiving care or treatment. Thus, comparing what people say they experienced, against what the agreed-upon care pathway was or what quality standard says helps the hospital evaluate the quality of care objectively.

Care bundles

In line with international patient safety goal five to reduce the risk of healthcare infections, Medcare implemented a small set of evidence-based interventions called 'care bundles' for various patient care activities, which have resulted in significantly better outcomes.

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