Celebrating Interprofessional Care: Pharmacy Department

The profession of Pharmacy is rapidly evolving from the “keeper of pharmaceuticals” to the “supplier of pharmaceutical care”. This means that pharmacists, as part of the health care team, are becoming more involved in providing care directly to patients, making recommendations to prescribers, reviewing medication lists and interacting with patients and other health care providers. The role of the pharmacy technician is also expanding as they are soon to be Regulated Health Professionals.

Our hospital employs more than thirty Pharmacy personnel; pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and pharmacy students working together to ensure the right medication gets to the right patient at the right time. Like an Oscar-winning production crew, these highly trained individuals work behind the scenes and on the front line to guarantee that the lead characters (that would be the patients, of course!) get the spotlight.

In a world of increasingly complex medication regimes, the role of the Pharmacy Department has never been more important in the hospital!

About Pain

Pain is very personal and we each experience pain differently. Unlike a fever, where a thermometer can show if you have a high temperature, there is no objective way to measure how much pain you are feeling.

Simply put, pain is an uncomfortable feeling that tells you something could be wrong in your body. For example, if you twist your ankle, the sharp feeling of pain actually lets you know that you have done some damage to your body. The pain will keep you from putting weight on the injured ankle and will protect it from further harm. Pain also acts as your body’s warning system. It lets you know when there is something wrong and it stimulates you to do something about it. In general, we learn from painful experience to avoid danger, and not to repeat injurious behaviour.

Pain is commonly viewed as either acute or chronic. Acute pain is temporary. It is usually immediate and may last from a few seconds to several months. Some sources of acute pain are sport injuries, childbirth, postoperative pain, fractures, burn and medical procedures. Acute pain will usually go away once normal healing occurs.

Contrary to acute pain, chronic pain persists beyond the time of normal healing. The chronic pain could be the result of an acute injury that did not heal properly or it could be from a host of other reasons such as cancer, nerve damage or arthritis. In some cases, the pain may not make sense because it may travel from the original site of the injury to unrelated areas of the body. Some examples of chronic pain include fibromyalgia syndrome, migraine headache and lower back pain. Chronic pain commonly produces psychological effects, from feelings of anger, sadness, hopelessness and despair. It can alter personalities, disrupt sleep and interfere with work and personal relationships.

Check in for a follow-up blog that will tell you some options on how you can treat pain.

“FALLING” - Not an Option

Patient safety is a top priority at Chatham-Kent Health Alliance (CKHA) and keeping our patients safe includes decreasing falls. Our Falls Task Team and the Professional Practice Team have made falls a priority and we are including everyone - physicians, nurses, housekeepers and visitors in our falls prevention efforts. We all play a role in keeping patients safe.

There are 7 strategies that have been proven to keep everyone safe:

1. Make sure the call light is within reach;
2. Bring in comfortable non-slip shoes for your loved one to use when walking;
3. Keep side rails down on the bed;
4. Leave the light on in the bathroom before you leave to go home;
5. Remove all unnecessary clutter from the room;
6. Keep the bed in its lowest position;
7. Make sure the brakes on the bed, chair or walker are on.

If you are out and about in the hospital and you see a patient with an orange bracelet, or an orange star above their bed, don’t despair. If that patient has had a history of falls or is at a higher risk for falls they will receive an orange bracelet to wear; this helps everyone in the hospital know that they may need assistance while walking.

Together we can make sure that our patients and loved ones are safe and injury free.

Patient Safety: The Surgical Safety Checklist

One in 13 admissions in Canada is associated with an adverse event. The estimate that up to 23,000 people died in 2004 in Canadian hospitals because of preventable adverse events is staggering.

Quality care requires quality communication. Communication failure amongst clinicians is the leading source of adverse events in healthcare.

At Chatham-Kent Health Alliance (CKHA), we are committed to ensuring that our patients receive the safest surgical care possible. There are many critical co-dependant steps needed for a team to achieve successful surgical outcomes. Research and experience of many Operating Room teams confirm that implementing a Checklist has an impact on surgical safety and team communication.

Checklists incorporate key principles that rely on standardized processes and better access to information and feedback. A Checklist ensures that teams share critical information and deliver evidence-based interventions for every single patient, in every surgical procedure at the right time. We have always used checklists…now it’s time for the whole team to be present and involved, including the patient.

This year, based on a checklist developed by the World Health Organization, CKHA’s Operating Room team created and implemented its own Surgical Safety Checklist. The checklist is discussed at three critical points in surgery with all team members present; (a) with the awake patient, (b) immediately before the incision and (c) prior to the patient leaving the operating room.

CKHA’s compliance with using the Surgical Safety Checklist, (all three phases) was 96.9% for the 1st reporting quarter – a solid result in improving patient safety.