Leading the Way to Zero

,,We are on the journey to zero harm. We take a look at every aspect of care and how we can improve that care, improve that process to make sure that we do not have that fall, that infection. We have them for a short amount of time in ambulatory surgery, but you need to make them safe from the time they walk in until the time they’re at home recovering.,,

,,Joint Commission standards definitely help us focus on which aspects of care are most important when we’re looking at reaching zero harm. The idea of zero harm and high reliability is something that we learned about from The Joint Commission, and we really try to take it to heart and bring that to the core of our service and mission. It really aligns very nicely with our mission, and vision, and goals.,,

,,By following Joint Commission standards, we have been able to reduce catheter infection rates in patients. By collecting metrics and looking at trends, we can pinpoint changes and quickly react to improve the patient outcome.,,

,,In addition to enhancing our performance improvement practices, and increasing our discipline, accountability, and sense of pride, preparing for Joint Commission accreditation helped us on our path to becoming a high reliability organization.,,

,,The way that accreditation helps in achieving zero harm is a focus on process improvement. There’s an old saying, “If you’re not measuring it, you’re not managing it.” And in order to improve quality you have to first decide what you’re going to measure, and figure out what those issues are, and then you will begin a journey.,,