Who Oversees Patient Safety?
Patient safety begins at the top, with Saint Raphael’s Board of Trustees. The board’s Quality Committee reviews patient safety data and can recommend changes to enhance safety. Saint Raphael’s Quality Improvement/Patient Safety Committee and the Patient Safety Steering Committee develop organization-wide policies and objectives on quality and safety. We also employ a full-time patient safety coordinator who monitors compliance and works with staff members to improve safety in their departments/areas. Each employee is charged with patient safety as his/her first priority.
Outside monitoring
Saint Raphael’s also meets numerous requirements and recommendations established by the state and federal governments and state and national accrediting organizations. Those requirements and recommendations cover areas like patient identification procedures, administering medication, fall prevention, facility safety and cleanliness and others. These organizations periodically inspect healthcare institutions to ensure compliance. Saint Raphael’s is licensed and/or accredited by these and other institutions:
- Connecticut State Department of Public Health: Inspects hospitals, long-term care facilities and other healthcare organizations at least every three years.
- The Joint Commission: Conducts extensive surveys every three years that cover virtually every area of the Hospital and aspect of care. Survey participation is voluntary. Accredited institutions are evaluated on compliance with the Joint Commission’s National Patient Safety Goals
- Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS): Part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, CMS surveys healthcare institutions to ensure they meet CMS quality standards. CMS also regulates all laboratory testing (non-research) on humans in the United States through the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments to ensure quality.
- Accrediting Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME): The private, not-for-profit ACGME accredits residency programs nationwide. Its goal is to improve the quality of health care by ensuring and improving the quality of graduate medical education experiences for physicians in training.
- Accreditation Association of Ambulatory Healthcare: Helps ambulatory healthcare organizations improve their quality of care. Accreditation is voluntary, and measures the quality of an ambulatory healthcare organization’s services against national standards.