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Patient Safety
Dedicated to Safety
Woodwinds Health Campus and HealthEast Care System are dedicated to ensuring the safest possible care for our patients. Through the work of our Patient Safety Committee, our membership on the Safest In America collaborative of Twin Cities' hospitals, and our participation with the VHA national hospital organization's patient safety initiatives, we are reviewing and enhancing our systems and processes to provide safe patient care.
• Patient safety is a priority throughout Woodwinds, with our leadership, physicians and staff.
• Our Patient Safety Committee evaluates any safety concern raised by staff, patients or family members. The committee is responsible for developing steps to make HealthEast a safe place to receive care.
• All physicians and nurses at our hospital are board licensed and participate in continuing education.
• For medication safety, we double-check to make sure you receive the right medication, right dose, with the right method at the right time. We encourage you to speak up if you have any questions about your medication.
• We recommend you to have a family member or friend with you during your health care visits. They can provide comfort, support and can also help ask questions.
• We encourage you to ask questions and takes notes.
Communication
One of our goals is to encourage and support open and honest communication with you, your family and your health care team.
• We participate in the Minnesota Hospital Association's Patient Safety Registry. This provides us with the latest safety information from around the state.
• We encourage you, your family and our staff to speak up if there is a safety concern.
• It is our policy to be open and honest with you and your family by informing you of the potential results of your care, including unexpected results.
• We encourage you to designate a family spokesperson to help communicate with your family and the health care team.
• We encourage you to complete a satisfaction survey. We survey our patients to learn about their hospital stay. We review these surveys and make changes as a result of your comments.
• We welcome the opportunity to discuss the care you receive. If you have comments, questions or concerns, please contact us at 651/326-7777.
Safety Highlights
Our hospital participates in statewide safety and quality activities:
• We participate in the Minnesota Hospital Association's Patient Safety Registry. This allows us to share safety resources and knowledge with hospitals across the state.
• Our hospital is committed to provide information to our patients and their families. We completed the Leapfrog Group survey at www.leapfroggroup.org .
• The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid ranked Minnesota 4th in the nation for providing quality care to Medicare patients.
•HealthEast hospitals are accredited by The Joint Commission.
• We are a member of Safest in America, a collaboration of Minnesota hospitals working together to ensure that our patient care is the safest in America.
Patient Safety Focus Areas
Safe Site Surgery
Policy and procedure ensure that the correct site and procedure is done:
- Patient or family asked to verify
- Consent form states procedure and site
- Site is marked if left or right
- Surgeon confirms procedure and site before patient is brought to the operating room
- In the operating room, a "pause for the cause" occurs to confirm patient, procedure and site before beginning surgery
Patient Identification
Policy and procedure ensure accurate identification of patients before giving medication, blood products or taking blood samples, or before surgery or other invasive procedure:
- Use at least two unique identifiers to establish a patient's identification
- Verify identification by asking the patient to state their full name and date of birth/staff checks medical record number
- Check the patient's ID band
Medication Safety
Policy and procedure follow the Twin Cities' Hospitals' Safest in America Medication Safety Collaborative recommendations for writing safe orders.
- We have prohibited certain abbreviations and are discouraging the use of others.
- For verbal orders, to verify the order, policy requires the person receiving the order to first write the order as they hear it, and then "read back" the complete order for verification.
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