From the Director
This month, the Oregon Patient Safety Commission published the first issue of a newly expanded newsletter. Our redesigned newsletter extends our outreach and provides essential patient safety information to professionals across the healthcare continuum. In the spirit of partnership and support, we are working to help providers improve and continuously build strong cultures of patient safety. The newsletter will provide access to recent news and headlines in patient safety, resources for healthcare professionals, and essential information for patients and families. The newsletter will also keep you connected to our website and informed about the patient safety programs offered by the Commission including reporting, healthcare-associated infection prevention efforts, education and training seminars, and more.
We welcome your ideas so that we can continue to improve our newsletter and make it useful and informative for your healthcare setting. Thank you for your efforts to ensure healthcare is safe for all Oregonians!
Bethany Higgins
ASCs Now Required to Use Safe Surgery Checklist
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is calling on all ambulatory surgery centers to use a safe surgical checklist starting January 1, 2012.
News Release
100% Oregon Hospital Participation in Voluntary Reporting Program
October 3, 2011—As of September 30, 2011, all 58 of Oregon’s community hospitals are participating in the adverse event reporting program.
Read News Release »
Nursing Home Expert Panel Develops Investigation Guide
In response to the number of adverse event reports related to falls, the Patient Safety Commission and community partners developed a simple, easy-to-use guide to investigate and reduce recurrence of such falls. The guide is structured around Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and incorporates other evidence-based quality improvement principles.
